retiredmartin

May 2025. Sheffield.

“Let’s take a random trip on t’ tram” I said to Mrs RM on a rare Saturday At Home. The first tram from Cathedral said “Herdings Park“, so we jumped on that to the end of the line.

It’s a park, and housing estate 20 minutes south-east of town,

with a remarkable lack of Untappd check-ins but a nice bit of tram track.

Gleadless Valley is rather overlooked compared to Sheffield’s marvellous collection of green spaces,

but it’s well maintained and you have it all to yourself on a sunny weekend, bar a few lads on bikes.

Mrs RM reckons 42 minutes is the perfect duration for a strenuous walk,

which luckily is all it takes to descend into family-friendly Heeley, all murals,

and pub exteriors that make you go “Oooh“,

and I decide it’s time to introduce her to the joys of Sheffield’s Pub of the Year (South).

The Brothers Arms was practically perfect on my last visit, bar that pub sign on the wall, and today it’s got live music all afternoon in the garden.

Which sounds idyllic, unless you can’t get a seat. So we head inside and nab the last seat.

Inside is a microcosm of suburban south Sheffield life; dads carrying board games to their toddlers, cyclists in lycra, Old Boys, Madri mums, Mrs RM demanding a pint.

You read that (multi-coloured) beer board right; £3.50 pints in 2025.

I splashed out on Aither and Pheasantry for a few shillings more, and still got 2 pints and 2 huge bhajis for a tenner.

It’s pub magic. Six behind the bar keep service swift, an eclectic soundtrack competes with the live stuff outside and wins, someone drops a glass and the pub goes “Wahey !”.

I would have said the beer itself was traditionally the weak(er) link, certainly compared with the Sheaf View, but the Pictish Comet is a cool and chewy NBSS 4+,

and an NBSS 4+ beer for £4 is a marvel.