Pub 99, Day 36 – The Noose & Gibbet Inn

By Rob

In case you've somehow failed to notice Andy's numerous jibes, which have been directed at me over the past few blog posts, I have been away in Rome for a couple of months. While there, I didn't quite find the time to crack on with my other, pub-related responsibilities and so, from the bottom of my heart, I would like to apologise.

(Just to clarify, this is an apology directed at the Pubquest readership and is not to be confused with an apology directed at Andy. I do have some words to direct at Andy, in light of his recent comments, but there are only two of them.)

So, without further delay, let's get back to business.

***

Having just finished up at the historic Carbrook Hall, we made the short walk around the corner to The Noose & Gibbet Inn.

Sat across from the arena, it's a pub I'd seen many times as a child and had always found intriguing. Not because I had an unhealthy, pre-pubescent interest in alcohol – rather, I was fascinated by the (pretend) man languishing inside the cage of the hanging gibbet, which had stood outside the pub for as long as I could remember. (So just an unhealthy, pre-pubescent interest in corpses.)

Finally satisfying my long-held curiosity, I stepped into the pub that had piqued my interest for so long.

And interesting the pub certainly was. Old roof beams mixed with modern flooring, an almost essay-length historical narrative written on one of the walls, a pool table that was semi-separate to the rest of the seating areas and, lest we forget, the man hanging in the gibbet outside.

Immediately, I found myself liking the place.

The range of beers could've been better, with no real ales on offer at the time of our visit (although I've been led to believe that, on a normal night, the selection is slightly more expansive). Once again, Andy and I were boxed into a corner, and once again we came out swinging with two bottles of Bulmers. 

On this occasion, the precise flavouring was Bold Black Cherry, but I won't waste anybody's time by trying to review it. Needless to say it was Bulmers, and I didn't like it.

However, the disappointment at the drinks selection was greatly alleviated by the friendly woman behind the bar, who seemed genuinely interested in our pub-centric adventure. As she quickly came to realise, showing even the slightest interest in our all-consuming hobby instantly elevated a person from 'total stranger' to 'new best friend'.

After we'd chewed the poor woman's ear off for nearly half an hour, we relocated to the pool table and fired off a few games, all of which Andy won.

Similar to its nearby competitor Carbrook Hall, The Noose & Gibbet has a bit of local history to boast of. Like the street it stands on, the pub owes its name to the misadventures of a certain Spence Broughton. Back in 1791, this chap had the poor sense to rob the Sheffield to Rotherham postal service (which apparently involved little more than dragging a boy off his horse and stealing his bag).

Although his accomplices managed to evade the death sentence, Mr Broughton wasn't so lucky, and poor old Spence was found guilty of highway robbery at York Castle in March 1792. He was subsequently executed and, according to the court records, his body was displayed in a gibbet at "some conspicuous spot on Attercliffe Common".^[1]

Upon the erection of the gibbet, and within the first few days of its arrival, a whopping 40,000 people were said to have flocked to catch a glimpse of it. Oddly, the gibbet was then kept in place for the next 36 years, becoming rather a gruesome local milestone.

And so, as you might have rightly guessed, the pub takes its name from this infamous and nearby incident. So too does the street, Broughton Lane, take its name from the unfortunate (and relatively unsuccessful) highwayman Spence Broughton.

Who said history couldn't be fun?

Noose & Gibbet pool score: Andy 3-0 Rob

Pubquest pool score: Andy 45-30 Rob

Pub: The Noose & Gibbet Inn (97 Broughton Lane, S9 2DE)

Rating: 5.5/10

Pint: Bulmers Bold Black Cherry

Brewery: H. P. Bulmer (Hereford)

NEXT UP: Pub number 100! At The Museum...

---

[1] http://www.museums-sheffield.org.uk/blog/2011/10/sheffield%E2%80%99s-horrible-history 

Pub 98, Day 36 – Carbrook Hall

By Andy

Historians often agree that the history of Rome – and by extension the history of European civilisation – can be summarised into three key sacks, each of which shaped the destiny of the entire continent:

1. The Sack of Rome by The Gauls (390 BC). This defeat prompted a series of military reforms, which set the foundations for Rome's domination on the battlefield.^[1]
2. The Sack of Rome by the Visigoths (410 AD). This deepened the schism between the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire.
3. The Sack of Rome by the Ostrogoths (546 AD). The fall of Rome was complete as a prolonged siege ensured that the city became depopulated entirely.^[2]

However, contemporary historians may have to add a fourth event to this list, the consequences of which will be deeper and more profound than anything which came before:

4. The sacking of Rob from Pubquest (2016 AD), unless he pulls his finger out and writes a bloody blog soon!

***

 

Leaving The Wentworth behind, we made the short journey to Carbrook Hall.

The Carbrook claims to be the most haunted pub in Sheffield. In reality, what this means is that the building has a bit of history behind it.

During the English Civil War, it was owned by John Bright, a Colonel for the Roundheads. The Roundheads used Carbrook Hall as a war bunker, and devised a plan to capture Sheffield Castle from the Cavaliers. After initial attempts failed, the Roundheads acquired a larger cannon, which enabled Colonel Bright to successfully breach the castle walls in 1644. As reward for his success, Colonel Bright was appointed Governor of York, before passing away in 1688.^[3]

Legend has it that the ghost of Colonel Bright often returns to Carbrook Hall to haunt the pub's patrons. Indeed, according to the landlord he is particularly fond of Smirnoff Ice, which frequently goes missing. This is the sort of finer detail that should convince any sceptics, as the fluorescent alcopop was a well-known popular drink during the 17th-century.

Bravely pushing all this to the back of our minds, we summoned up the courage to enter. The pub's interior instantly reveals the building's history, with ornate oak-panelled walls and a 'hidden' 17th-century door.

However, the fittings fight for attention with garish modern additions, including an assortment of off-putting portraits and a cartoonish chap in a suit of armour. This artificial history actually conceals the genuine features, distracting you from the finer details.

Unfortunately the beer choice was not as inspiring as the architecture, so we were forced to sample cider: on this occasion, Thatchers Gold.

As they were being poured, it suddenly dawned on me that I recognised the landlord. Never trusting my own powers of facial recognition (I once thought Paul Daniels was a rapper, and Rob never lets me forget it), I turned to Rob, who was having the same epiphany.

It was the landlords from one of our favourite pubs, the Star & Garter!

After discovering the Star & Garter's 50p pool table, we had spent many evenings there shortly before its sad demise. Pleasingly, the landlords also recognised us (or at least they claimed to), allowing us to discuss the S&G's closure and their subsequent relocation to Carbrook Hall.

The landlords are a thoroughly lovely couple, although it has to be said, judging by their track record not particularly good at running pubs: the Star & Garter will soon become student flats, and rumours persist that Carbrook Hall will soon meet the same fate.

Picture the scene: Freshers' Week 2020, and an irate student bangs on his flatmate's door:

“This is your last warning: stop fucking stealing my Smirnoff Ice!”

Pub: Carbrook Hall (537 Attercliffe Common, S9 2FJ)

Rating: 6.5/10

Pint: Thatchers Gold

Brewery: Thatchers Cider (Sandford, Somerset)

NEXT UP: Rob's riposte, at The Noose & Gibbet Inn...

References: 
[1] The Battle at the Allia River 390 BCE, http://www.ancient.eu/article/879/ 
[2] Patrick Amory, People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy 489-554, Cambridge University Press, (1997), p.11
[3] http://carbrookhallpub.wixsite.com/carbrook-hall/about

Pub 97, Day 36 – The Wentworth

By Andy

As Monty Python pointed out, the Romans are a canny bunch. While the rest of the world was living primitively, the city of Rome developed aqueducts, roads and wine. However, in the intervening millennia, they appear to have been surpassed as the centre of civilisation.

For example, living in Britain, if I wanted to send a word document to a friend, I could use a method called 'electronic mail'. However, this vital form of communication clearly hasn't quite made it to Rome yet, as despite repeated promises to the contrary, Rob still hasn't sent over a single word of the Pubquest blog he is due to write.

When in Rome, do as a lazy Roman student would do.

***

Arcing round the arena, The Wentworth immediately caught our eye. A quaint village pub juxtaposed next to a formidable steelworks, the view seemed to encapsulate Sheffield.

Inside, the pub was smaller than it looked yet wonderfully old-fashioned, with a central circular bar and a rustic, warming fireplace. The choice of beer and spirits was pleasing, if a little stymied by the limited space.

We chose Kashmir, a ruby-coloured ale by Acorn Brewery which delighted us with its deep, malty flavours. Rob has a particular penchant for red beers, and he considered it “a close second” to Thornbridge's Colorado Red.

Being critical, the concrete beer garden serves little purpose, as when summer arrives I would rather drink by a canal than in the shadow of Forgemasters. However, I'm sure the locals appreciate the option, despite the lack of scenery.

Pub: The Wentworth (26 Milford Street, S9 2LD)

Rating: 7/10

Pint: Kashmir

Brewery: Acorn Brewery (Barnsley)

NEXT UP: The most haunted pub in Sheffield, at Carbrook Hall...

Pub 96, Day 36 – Arena Square

By Andy

Well, dear readers: Rob's fucked off to Rome.

We've been here before of course: almost as soon as the blog began, I nobly relocated to Howden in East Yorkshire for work. I came back a couple of years later, but as soon as I did Rob selfishly fucked off to Coventry for his first job. After a few months he too returned, and for the first time in years we were both in Sheffield. Progress would be relentless.

Then, after just six months in the adult world, Rob decided that what he really needed was to relive his previous 24 years as a student, and packed in his steady 9–5 to dodge taxes once more. He began a PhD in Late Ancient History, and before you knew it, he jetted off to Rome on a 3-month “residential research course”. Well there isn't much research taking place based on the photos you're putting on Facebook mate!

So, while he's off eating pizza and driving Ferraris, I'm left looking after the metaphorical children, writing up entries for the pubs we've already visited...

***

Having ticked off the pubs surrounding Bramall Lane and Hillsborough, we thought it was high time to visit those near Sheffield's other top-class sporting venue: the arena.

We were joined by previous guest-blogger Lucy, along with Rob's girlfriend Hannah.

Our first stop was Arena Square, a large family-friendly establishment which belongs to the Table Table chain. Although technically just a stone's throw from the arena, in reality this journey involves a perilous dash across 6 lanes of traffic, ensuring your adrenaline is pumping upon arrival.

The pub was spread across several rooms, all of which were completely identical. The furniture was about as nondescript as it was possible to be: cheap, wooden and wobbling. The atmosphere of the place was flat, bordering on soulless.

Pubquest Points were awarded for a decent beer selection, from which we selected Dirty Tackle, a winter beer from Wychwood Brewery (the makers of Hobgoblin). Dirty Tackle turned out to be far superior to its more famous sibling, which felt the wrath of our review in 2012.

Having been stung once before by pubs that weren't serving food, I had called at the nearby KFC beforehand, and gorged myself on a Zinger Burger Box Meal. The others were not nearly as forward-thinking as I, and chose from the Arena Square's menu.

Rob and Hannah both opted for chicken and pea pie, which was your typical reheated fare. However, the accompanying chips were appetising enough for me to steal a few when Hannah went to the bar.

Lucy went for a salad of some sort, so I won't hold the Arena Square responsible for her catastrophic error of judgement.

As the name suggests, the pub's defining feature is its proximity to the arena, rather than any particular dedication to beer or food.

I suppose when your trade is made up of concert-goers eagerly awaiting their annual trip to see Take That, there's no need to provide Europe's finest pilsners or Yorkshire's freshest food: just be open, serve alcohol, and make sure you get your staff rota aligned with the arena's schedule.

Pub: Arena Square (3 Arena Court, S9 2LF)

Rating: 6/10

Pint: Dirty Tackle

Brewery: Wychwood Brewery (Witney, Oxfordshire)

NEXT UP: Sheffield in a nutshell, at The Wentworth...

Pub 95, Day 35 – Tap & Tankard

By Andy

We rounded off the evening with a visit to the Tap & Tankard, a venue I was rather excited about. The pub had recently replaced The Sportsman (which let's face it, needed replacing), and was now owned by Kelham Island Brewery. My heartbeat quickened as I imagined The Fat Cat only bigger, a range of beers so varied that no two customers ever drank the same.

However, I was slightly disappointed to find the Tap & Tankard was just like any other pub – a nice haven from the city centre but far less pioneering than its older brother. Where The Fat Cat has guest beers from all over the world, the T&T mostly just stuck to its brewery's line-up, with a couple of fruit beers thrown in for variety.

Don't get me wrong, I could quite happily drink Kelham Island beers all evening, but it felt like the pub was a watered-down version of The Fat Cat – for part-time, city-centre drinkers.

It was an enjoyable place to end the night though – Festive Reserve was our drink of choice (it's important to tick the Christmas beers off before they're removed from the menu in mid-January). The pint was surprisingly decent, and not overpowered by cinnamon or nutmeg or whatever other shite breweries chuck in their December offerings.

The pub was empty by this time, so the three of us (me, Rob and Cowboy Keith) sat in the corner trading anecdotes. Had there been a crackling fireplace it would have been the perfect winter setting, the sort you only see in low-budget Christmas movies.

The toilets soon brought us back to reality though – I once attended a football match at York City's stadium where the toilets were literally a wall to piss on. The facilities at the Tap & Tankard were a tiny, miniscule improvement on that.

One final plus point: the Tap & Tankard is literally next-door to Chubby's, a standard-bearer for greasy late-night takeaways. If I hadn't already eaten a curry at Wetherspoons, I would have ended the night with a doner kebab.

(I'm lying: I did get a doner kebab.) (With chips.)

(Cheesy chips.)

Pub: Tap & Tankard (24 Cambridge Street, S1 4HP) (now closed)

Rating: 7/10

Pint: Festive Reserve
Brewery: Kelham Island Brewery (Sheffield)

NEXT UP: Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears, at Arena Square...

In case you were in any doubt: he really does wear a cowboy hat. And purple leather gloves. (To match
his purple shirt and waistcoat). Everyone else may as well give up, because Keith has just won fashion.

Pub 94, Day 35 – The Benjamin Huntsman

By Rob

Andy, Cowboy Keith and myself all left The Grapes and headed over to The Benjamin Huntsman on Cambridge Street. There were a few pubs in this area that, strangely, we still hadn’t managed to tick off our list. This, coupled with the fact that Andy really fancied a “cheap Spoons curry”, made the Huntsman an obvious choice.

The pub – another of Sheffield’s enormously spacious Wetherspoons – will always have a special place in my heart as a regular haunt from the days when I first reached legal drinking age. Many of our more memorable nights began here, downing large pitchers of luridly purple fizz (cheap enough that you could buy it by the bucket), before passing out in West Street Live.

That being said, it was still a Spoons, and therefore came with the usual mix of pros and cons, all of which we've previously discussed. 

We ordered Huntsman Stout by Rotherham-based Chantry Brewery – although Huntsman Stout was presumably unconnected to The Benjamin Huntsman pub we were drinking in, we figured they were probably both named after the same person, so why not combine the two. The beer was fine, but didn’t really stand out from many of the other thick, dark stouts we’d come across in the past. Andy – who prefers darker beers – was in his element with the stout and, of course, the “cheap Spoons curry”.

The Huntsman is one of Sheffield’s better city-centre Spoons, certainly beating the (now closed) Swim Inn on West Street, and easily surpassing the nearby Banker’s Draft. This, I would argue, is because of its more favourable alcoholic-to-normal-customer ratio, which is/was unacceptably high in the two Spoons mentioned above.

Like many other Spoons, the pub’s name is derived from local history. The eponymous Mr Benjamin Huntsman was an eighteenth-century industrialist, who invented crucible steel in Sheffield. The success of Huntsman’s new process was its ability to reach incredibly high temperatures, hot enough to melt steel and dissolve iron.

Judging by the look on Andy’s sweat-drenched face, the pub that now bore the manufacturer’s name also included searing heat as a central feature of their creations.

Pub: The Benjamin Huntsman (12-18 Cambridge Street, S1 4HP)

Rating: 8.5/10

Pint: Huntsman Stout

Brewery: Chantry Brewery (Rotherham, S62 6NR)

NEXT UP: The perfect winter's evening, at the Tap & Tankard...

Pub 93, Day 35 – The Grapes

By Rob

In my never-ending quest to stay cool and impress women, I’ve recently taken up genealogy as a hobby.

Having briefly considered learning the guitar, or acquiring a new language, I decided to spend my evenings researching my family tree. After all, what’s more attractive than a man who knows about his long-dead relatives?

After some initial digging, I discovered that both of my grandparents on my father’s side were of Irish descent. My grandfather’s ancestors, whose surname I obviously bare today, came over to Sheffield from Ireland during the great famine of the 1850s. Meanwhile, it turned out that my grandmother was, unbeknownst to her, half-Irish. Her father, having been born and raised in Belfast, came over to England in the 1920s.

“What the fuck does any of this have to do with Pubquest, you self-indulgent boring bastard?!” I hear you cry.

Well, as Andy and I left The Devonshire Cat, we were pondering where to go next. As my mind was, at this time, filled with shamrocks and leprechauns (and all things skin-crawlingly stereotypical), I suggested we visit the only truly Irish pub I could think of in Sheffield: The Grapes.

As we made our way over to Trippet Lane, Andy’s phone began to ring.

Now, the reason I mention this seemingly mundane event is not because Andy’s phone rarely rings. Let’s make it clear, from hereon, that both Andy and myself are incredibly popular people who receive an absurd amount of correspondence from our expansive network of family, friends and acquaintances. Guys who write blogs about pubs are not short of mates.

No, the reason I mention this is because Andy’s phone rang out with a special ringtone, which I believe is the theme tune to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. There was only one contact in Andy’s phone who elicited this musical response from his mobile device.

Cowboy Keith.

For those of you who don’t know who Cowboy Keith is, I would recommend going back and reading about the night we first encountered this enigmatic, hat-wearing fellow. For those who can’t be bothered to do that, just know that Keith is a small Chinese man who wears dark suits, cowboy hats, and sunglasses – who we randomly met during our first ever Pubquest outing in 2012.

Keith, it transpired, was in town that night and wanted to meet up. Always excited to see our old compatriot, we warmly extended an invitation to join us at The Grapes, which Keith gladly accepted.

He was already at the pub by the time we arrived, and we greeted each other fondly. Once inside, both Andy and myself ordered a pint of Guinness Golden Ale (it seemed impossible not to order something Guinness-related while in the most Irish establishment we were likely to find during the whole of this mad, pioneering adventure).

We sat ourselves down and began to catch up with Keith, eager to hear about his various goings on. He informed us that he had decided to go part-time in his job as a dental support worker (big news – tell your mates). He also informed us that he’d just bought a second motorbike. This was news to us, having not known that he owned even one. 

As previously mentioned, Keith has asked not to be shown. Here, we have replaced Keith's actual face with a massive smiley head.

The conversation flowed, as did the beer. Both of us enjoyed the Guinness Golden Ale, although it didn’t come close to matching a pint of the ordinary stuff for flavour. When I visit this pub outside of Pubquest, standard Guinness is always my first choice.

I love The Grapes. At the time of writing, it’s up there with some of my favourite pubs in Sheffield. I love the Irish vibe and decor – the pub has a warm atmosphere, and it really comes into its own on a cold winter’s night. However, it is truly at its best when playing host to the various musical customers who make an appearance most weekends – especially on a Sunday. It’s never long before the instruments come out and the singing starts.

Sad to tear ourselves away before the entertainment got thoroughly underway, we finished our pints and headed out to the next stop on the list.

Pub: The Grapes (80 Trippet Lane, S1 4EL)

Rating: 9/10

Pint: Guinness Golden Ale

Brewery: Guinness Brewery (Dublin)

NEXT UP: Curry night, at The Benjamin Huntsman...