WALKLEY’S EMBARASSMENT OF RICHES

May 2024. Walkley. Sheffield.

It really is a mixed blessing living in Walkley; the lure of Kelham Island 10 minutes walk away and four Guide-worthy pubs on my doorstep.

The Blake Hotel you know, the Blind Monkey has been swapping places with the Raven of late, and the “village” beer shop has just had one of those Pub of the Month awards that often presage a GBG return (I don’t know if it will, you think I’m sitting through a CAMRA branch meeting ?).

By a happy accident, the bus that Mrs RM made us take to the top of South Road (all downhill from there) drops you at Walkley Beer Co. a gem of place on recent visits.

OK, it looks like an offie with a large trestle table, but trestle tables work at Octoberfest, no ?

It’s been busier on each visit, though the sun (honest) had brought the local trade on to the pavement. It’s the sort of trade you get at Cambridge’s Live & Let Live, though perhaps more of a place to go with a mate than on your own.

Cask from Ashover (NBSS 4+), keg from Verdant, who I’d almost forgot about and get mixed up with Deya, not helped by the glassware.

The Track was for home. I needed it, as the final whistle blew at Wembley on the way down Industry Street. There is no cure for a cup final defeat as effective as a Mancunian IPA and the Sang Lung Crispy Beef/Singapore Rice combo.

But don’t tell Chung Hwa I said that.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

9 thoughts on “WALKLEY’S EMBARASSMENT OF RICHES”

  2. Among my friends and drinking companions I am reckoned as a quicker than average walker. You, Martin, are considerably quicker than me. But there’s no way you can walk from Retired Martin Towers to Kelham Island in 10 minutes.

    Google maps makes it 1.3 miles from the Blind Monkey to the Kelham Island Museum. Even a mile, and mostly downhill, from yours to the Kelham Island Tavern is not a walk you’ll be doing in the time claimed.

    On re-reading your blog, I see that there is something called “the lure of Kelham Island 10 minutes walk away”, so perhaps I’m being unnecessarily critical. Once that “lure” – possibly located close to the snooker club on Infirmary Road, though that’s just a wild guess – has tempted you in the right direction, there’s almost no point going back, especially if you’ve already walked that far, and it’s uphill to go back to where you started.

    Which makes it even more unlikely that you would end up in the Walkley Beer Co at the top of the hill. There must be another explanation.

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    1. Lure is (another) craft bar hidden in that Farfield Inn at the northern edge of Kelham that you may have missed due to the hysteria induced by a season of VAR. I can certainly make it there in 10 and that’s my official start of the Island.

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      2. You really had to be there at Northampton in 2018 to see how fast Stafford Paul walks when there’s a pub in view. An inspiration to us all, as ever.

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      4. Martin, May 2018 was my last month of being middle aged. Little did I know then how much I would slow down during six years of old age.

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