VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT
Four pubs and a brewery After many years running a large company, Gordon Jones got the urge to own a pub, writes Dave Pickersgill In 2013, after years running a
firm providing temporary buildings and structures, Gordon Jones decided he really wanted to run a pub. His local became available and the rest is history: after less than a decade, his company now has four pubs and a brewery, plus three taps. In the beginning was the Cadeby Pub & Restaurant. The building has a history dating back to 1751, first opening as a village pub in 1975. Almost 40 years later, property company ownership and a succession of short-term managers saw the underperforming pub become available. A subsequent £500,000 spend saw the interior sympathetically renovated: 30 BEER SUMMER 2022
BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN
Gordon Jones at the Blind Monkey
timber beams, open brickwork and stone fireplaces blending with an eclectic mix of modern elegance. By 2018, the pub had won a brace of restaurant awards. Four years after the Cadeby purchase, in early 2017, the project moved forward with the acquisition of the Firwood
Cottage (Walkley, Sheffield). This opened-out ex-Tetley pub had been left to deteriorate. Denied a survey, Gordon and his son, Ben, were forced to complete in 30 days. The gamble paid off with the building only requiring a new roof. Almost 18 months later, renamed and extensively renovated, the Blind Monkey was born. Dating back to 1846, the building was originally a small village shop that sold beer in bottles that could be refilled once returned. It later became a pub. Over the years, it was opened out from smaller rooms into an open-plan barn. The ethos of the refurbishment was to take the pub back to the early 1900s. It was stripped of electrics and the old, fixed benching
