Pub 128, Day 48 – Miners Arms

By Andy

“At what point did you realise you'd made it?”

This is one of the most common questions that celebrities, such as ourselves, get asked on a daily basis.

For an actor, the answer could be a leading role, or co-starring with a household name. For a politician, it's likely to be when the Speaker first points in their direction, whereas a goal often confirms a footballer's arrival.

For Pubquest, our moment came as we were sat in the Miners Arms in Chapeltown, and both our phones buzzed simultaneously.

“You have 1 new follower on Twitter!”

We exchanged curious glances. Make no mistake, this was not a regular occurrence.

Who was the latest person to fall victim to our uninformative blogs and rarely-updated Twitter account? Perhaps, on this occasion, they may not even be related to us?

As it turned out, our expectations were far too low – our new follower was not flesh and blood, nor had we ever even met them before. In fact, it was a genuine celebrity!

(Well when I say 'genuine', I mean 'sort-of'. It was a sort-of celebrity.)

(The type you are vaguely aware of and seem to recognise their name, but wouldn't be able to pick out of a line-up without first being given several clues.)

The celeb in question was Natalie Bennett.

Yes, the Natalie Bennett, not some imposter. Her account had a blue tick and everything.

For those who need help, Natalie Bennett was the former leader of the Green Party, and easily the 6^th most famous of the 7 party leaders who took part in 2015's televised debates (narrowly behind Cameron, Miliband, Clegg, Farage and Sturgeon; ahead of whoever was Plaid Cymru leader).

Incredibly, she had over 100,000 Twitter followers! We could barely muster 100.

Her Twitter bio did specifically say “Follows aren't an endorsement”, but nonetheless, we were taking this as a massive endorsement. I made a mental note to locate a copy of the Green Party manifesto, to check if we'd been mentioned personally.

Looking back at our stratospheric rise to fame since this point, it is refreshing to recall our naivety. Natalie Bennett was standing as a Parliamentary candidate for Sheffield Central, and of course wanted to raise her profile within the city. To that end, she had followed several of the local Twitter big-hitters – from her point of view, merely being associated with us could seriously boost her election hopes.

Alas, Natalie's success did not mirror our own. At the 2017 General Election, she managed to halve the Green Party's Sheffield Central vote share, dropping them down from second place to third. Just like Eminem in D12, we can't drag everyone else along with us on our journey to the top.

After recovering from being starstruck, we began to check out the pub. The Miners Arms is community-owned: when it was listed for sale by Thwaites Brewery in 2014, local residents fearful of losing a community asset put together the money to buy them out. Here at Pubquest we are a big fan of community-owned boozers (Rob even owns a share in the Gardeners Rest), and congratulate The Miners Arms for helping blaze the trail. Perhaps one day all pubs will be managed by their locals, and penny-pinching breweries will go back to making beers – a lovely thought.

We were now in north Chapeltown, just yards from the boundary with Barnsley. As such, we ordered two pints of Barnsley Bitter – which also happens to be one of my favourite beers. Like drinking Guinness in Dublin, it tasted particularly special.

The community had done themselves proud with the interior: the jazzy wallpaper, garish carpets and large fireplace meant it was immediately recognisable as a classic British pub. Tucked away in the corner was a pool table, and we took advantage of the Chapeltown rates (50p compared to £1 in the city centre) by playing four frames.

The Miners Arms was lucky in that we were in a good mood throughout our visit – after all, we had just discovered superstardom. That as it were, the pub was a gem – off the beaten track (even by Chapeltown's standards), but well worth the journey.

Miners Arms pool score: Andy 2-2 Rob
Pubquest pool score: Andy 53-35 Rob

Pub: Miners Arms (125 Warren Lane, S35 2YD)

Rating: 8/10

Pint: Barnsley Bitter

Brewery: Acorn Brewery (Barnsley)

NEXT UP: Short and sweet, at The Barrel...