By Rob
On the walk from the
Crown & Cushion, we decided to delve into the history of Chapeltown
(partly because we’d ran out of things to say to each other, partly
to take our minds off the hunger, and partly because we’d need
something to pad these blog posts out with).
One interesting snippet
that cropped up was the tale of a missing tank, possibly stolen, from
the village a few years ago. During the Second World War, Chapeltown
had churned out Churchill tanks and, to mark this, one stood on
display at the site for decades. According to Yorkshire Life,
one morning the locals awoke to find it missing, with one resident
allegedly seeing it, that fateful night, "on the back of a
low-loader disappearing down the M1."[1]
It might sound hard to
believe, but a quick internet search reveals that, as recently as
2019, two decommissioned tanks were stolen from a transport depot in
nearby Dinnington. The man who was due to collect the tanks, Chris,
had clearly not heard of the Chapeltown crime, telling the Star “I
was stunned and flabbergasted – I could not believe it.”[2]
Is there a serial tank
thief on the loose in South Yorkshire? The Tank Thief of Tankersley,
perhaps?
Probably not. But
either way, back to the matter at hand.
We arrived at the
Wharncliffe Arms and were horrified to discover they did not serve
food. There would be yet another pub and, crucially, yet another
pint, between us and our dinner.
The pub was rather
charming, in that effortless, ‘old-man-pub’,
red-upholstery-and-patterned-carpet sort of way. The beer selection
was also pretty good, with a few cask ales on. We each ordered a pint
of Blizzard, by the local Stancill Brewery. Given our empty stomachs,
we were glad of the light, malty beer – nothing too lethal.
We didn’t hang about
all that long, as we were now four pints deep and still without a single
bite to eat…
Pub: Wharncliffe Arms (365 Burncross Road, S35 1SB)
Rating: 7.5/10
Pint: Blizzard
[1] Bill Hearld,
‘Chapeltown’, Yorkshire
Life, (May
2010)
https://www.yorkshirelife.co.uk/out-about/places/chapeltown-a-south-yorkshire-village-with-the-feel-of-a-bustling-town-that-wants-for-nothing-1-1638263
[2] Dan Hayes, ‘Two
World War Two tanks ‘stolen’ from South Yorkshire transport
depot’, Sheffield
Star,
(June 2019),
https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/crime/two-world-war-two-tanks-stolen-south-yorkshire-transport-depot-70431
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