PEELING BACK THE YEARS Good Beer Guide: 1983

head and a distinctive fullbodied flavour. By February 1983, Tetley had pulled the plug on the beer which had failed to catch on with the region’s drinkers. Sales had fallen so low that it was deemed no longer viable to carry on brewing with many customers finding the beer to be thin and sweet tasting. After its demise, Tetley trialled another real ale, Falstaff Best, which had sold well in Halifax and Bradford, in 23 Sheffield pubs for an initial three-month period.

Pubs

The 1983 edition of the Good Beer Guide was the tenth printed edition of the guide and the last to be edited by Roger Protz until 2000.

Breweries

One of the major names in Sheffield brewing history is that of Duncan Gilmour, a Scotsman born in 1816 who set up business in Sheffield and began brewing initially at the Furnival Brewery. After handing over to his son, Duncan, the company went from strength to strength and in 1900 moved to the Lady’s Bridge Brewery. The brewery owned around 150 licenced houses at the time it was acquired by Joshua Tetley in 1954. Fast forward to 1981, and Tetley launched a revived version of Gilmour’s Bitter, described as having a clear body, a creamy

Dronfield CAMRA area representatives included the much-missed Yellow Lion on High Street, Apperknowle which at the time served hand-pulled Tetley Bitter and the aforementioned Tetley Gilmour’s Bitter. The pub, described as a ‘popular village pub with restaurant’ continued its high standards and commitment to real ale for a further twenty years until converting into private residences.

In Dronfield, Stones Bitter was on offer via electric dispense at the Green Dragon on Church Street and there was a mention for the nearby Blue Stoops which sold Wards beers.

At Holmesfield, Home Bitter was available at the Travellers Rest, a ‘friendly village local’ whilst down the hill at Millthorpe, the Royal Oak was a ‘300-year-old village pub serving excellent fare’ that served Wards Sheffield Best Bitter and Darley Thorne Bitter. Out at Barlow, the same beers were on offer at the Barlow Huntsman

(now Tickled Trout), yet another Wards establishment and a ‘busy, friendly, village centre pub with guest beers’.

Another entry just outside our branch boundary on Prospect Road at Bradway, opposite the bus terminus was the Old Mother Redcap, an ‘impressive newly built pub, stone farmhouse style’. The Redcap, which has been closed for long periods in recent years was opened in May 1981 by Sam Smiths at a cost of £250,000 and designed to resemble an old Derbyshire cottage. The pub served Old Brewery Bitter from a wooden barrel as well as Sam Smith’s usual keg lagers and stouts. The pub’s name was taken from a pub in Camden which as The World’s End now incorporates the well-known gig venue the Underworld. Old Mother Redcap herself was a witch who was burned at the stake around 1612.

Elsewhere in the country, the 1983 guide was notable for the inclusion of the first JD Wetherspoon pub. Following their formation in 1979, the Watford based pub group opened its first venue in Muswell Hill, north-east London bringing real ales from the likes of Adnams, Greene King, Shepherd Neame and Timothy Taylor to a wider audience. Other pubs were soon opened in the locality including Dick’s Bar on Tottenham Lane which whilst having not traded as a pub for some years holds the distinction of the first ‘Spoons GBG entry.

Pat Hancock