A FUN DAY OUT AT ROTHERHAM’S ADVANCED MANUFACTURING PARK

January 2026. Waverley. Rotherham.

I knew it would take something new and exciting to persuade Mrs RM to stop refining her Sarajevo blog and come out for a walk on the remains of Orgreave pits, and that something new and exciting was a visit to the new (but dull) village of Waverley, betwixt Rotherham and Sheffield. I know, you’ve already made your holiday plans for Corby Glen, but plans are there to be changed.

Waverley’s eco houses are being snapped up at prices comparable to Waterbeach new town (£400k+),

helped by the presence of actual schools and shops and work and pubs, and a small focal point in Olive Lane, the adverts for which you’ll see as you zoom at 49mph alone the A630 from M1 to RM Towers.

Still a bit of work to go, mind,

but it’s organic mud, so that’s OK.

I’d promised Mrs RM a long walk, but she had to find WiFi to make plan for her girls trip this month (leaving me behind), so I suggested the Winter Green, which I insist on confusing with the Winter Seam in Castleford’s indoor ski centre, another coal based pub.

This new build Marstons pub impressed with its Pedigree 4 years ago, a bit less so on the return visit, and this time drifted out to NBSS 3, though of course some believe that means you must cancel plans to move on to a sixth pub or something.

Should have tried the exciting guests.

Not a bargain pint, either,

and the soundtrack was pumping out “The Way It Is” and “Don’t You Forget About Me” at night club volumes, not that Bruce Hornsby has ever been a night club staple.

Some nice local touches, though I bet the good folk of Waversley would have preferred a Spoons.

We walked to the Advanced Manufacturing Plant, which I presume is where recent graduates to refine autovacs for West Yorkshire pubs and less important industrial innovation.

The AMP cafe, run by A’tuin, had some hi-tech coffee making devices,

and a cup that looked like it weighed a ton but was weightless.

The nice barista lady entertained us with her management of an excessively complex lunch order from the IT geeks.

Talking of food, Mrs RM read my mind and diverted our walk from the original plan and on to the Whitby’s where the Haddock and Chips was as good as I’ve had since moving to Sheffield.

But the real takeaway was how busy the restaurant was at Whitby’s, packed with gentlefolk on a cold Wednesday in January, washing down £20 worth of cod, chip and mushy peas with pints of John Smiths Smooth. The grey pound is very real..

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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.

42 thoughts on “A FUN DAY OUT AT ROTHERHAM’S ADVANCED MANUFACTURING PARK”

    3. “That’s 6 dollars Canadian. Really expensive.”

      I was going to chime in with a “what?”, but realized you had converted the price to (actual) Canadian. Well done you! 👍

      Cheers 🍻

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. We treasure our Canadian reader, and do all we can to make life easy for them. I might start marking all the spelling mistakes with a maple 🍁 so they’re even easier for you to find.

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      2. “We treasure our Canadian reader, and do all we can to make life easy for them. I might start marking all the spelling mistakes with a maple 🍁 so they’re even easier for you to find.”
        ☺️

        Liked by 1 person

  3. You could have had pop over to the Oxbow at Woodhouse Station, I assume in best BBC style you’ve mixed up the order of the pics to make it look like you had ate after you drank rather than the other way round

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    1. The BBC’s production contractors didn’t mix up the order of what Trump said. They just edited out the incoherent rambling between the relevant bits as journalists often do. They did with the Battle Of Orgreave video however.

      Make what you will of that.

      Liked by 1 person

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  4. A very high quality post that mentions my home town, Rotherham, has got to be worth a comment! Shocked at those prices though, Stone bitter was only 34 pence a pint when I left the area. (PS – you could’ve waited for the Tetleys to condition, RM?

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      1. Yes, Marston’s are in turn owned by Carlsberg, which is itself owned by the Carlsberg Foundation, so there are a few layers to be paid. However, at least they’re not owned by a US hedge fund or an oil state’s wealth fund…

        Liked by 2 people

      2. The brewery, not the pubs, are owned by Carlsberg.
        Marstons, a pub company now, hasn’t changed much but has significant debts – maybe in part from building new build pubs – which probably caused not only their breweries being sold but also dearer pints.

        Liked by 1 person

      5. That’s better, thanks.

        Yes, AI says: Marston’s PLC is a publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange, meaning it is owned by various shareholders, including institutional investors like NFU Mutual Investment Services Ltd. and Hargreaves Lansdown. Following the sale of its brewing interests, it operates as a focused “pure play” hospitality company with over 1,300 pubs.

        It could be worse, but those dividends have to be paid.

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      6. Yes indeed, “those dividends have to be paid”.
        I’ve no doubt that the best brewers are the couple of dozen who have survived over a century and have neither debts nor ‘greedy’ shareholders. They tend to have retained proper pubs with tenants running them for many years and sensible prices.

        Liked by 3 people

      8. What’s a two door pub ? One for diners, one for local drinkers ?

        I noticed that Marston’s (I think) have invested quite a bit in their Generous George pub just north of Hillsborough, so obviously the major pub companies still believe they’re viable.

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  5. “and that something new and exciting was a visit to the new (but dull) village of Waverley,”

    Aren’t most ‘new’ things a bit dull?

    “Waverley’s eco houses are being snapped up at prices comparable to Waterbeach new town”

    Intriguing design. What makes them eco?

    “helped by the presence of actual schools and shops and work and pubs”

    That does help indeed!

    “but it’s organic mud, so that’s OK”

    (slow golf clap)

    “I’d promised Mrs RM a long walk, but she had to find WiFi to make plan for her girls trip this month (leaving me behind)”

    My darling wife did that in December, and has plans (I think) to do it again in June.

    “though of course some believe that means you must cancel plans to move on to a sixth pub or something.”

    Nonsense!

    “Not a bargain pint, either,”

    (looks down)
    Egads! That’s almost as bad as downtown Vancouver.

    “and the soundtrack was pumping out “The Way It Is” and “Don’t You Forget About Me” at night club volumes”

    Does that mean it was loud, or not loud?
    (it’s been a while since I frequented a night club)

    “Some nice local touches, though I bet the good folk of Waversley would have preferred a Spoons.”

    What do the good folk of Waversley have to do with the good folk of Waverley? 😁

    “The AMP cafe, run by A’tuin”

    The giant turtle?

    “The nice barista lady entertained us with her management of an excessively complex lunch order from the IT geeks.”

    Heh. 😊

    “Talking of food, Mrs RM read my mind and diverted our walk from the original plan and on to the Whitby’s where the Haddock and Chips was as good as I’ve had since moving to Sheffield.”

    Always nice to find good food in one’s area.

    “The grey pound is very real..”

    Good point (though it didn’t need two periods at the end). 😉

    But yeah, those of us older folk who happen to own their own home (and paid it off), do have, I suppose, more disposable income compared to someone in their 20s/30s/40s trying to save enough, whilst renting, to put a down payment on a home of their own.

    Cheers

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    1. Lana, I once used one of those “two bricks” toilets in France with no windows. The light switch was outside and it switched off after about three minutes…

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      5. Personally, I’d rather spend an evening drinking with the average Bordelais (or Roman for that matter) than with the average Yorkshireman, Martin.

        And they – or the Belgians – invented chips.

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      7. You can have that. I should have used “typical”, not average.

        You’re right, I don’t think that we often meet an “average” anybody at all.

        Liked by 1 person

      8. I’m heartened to see that The French prosecutors have raided Musk’s Paris office and summoned the git.

        Perhaps those who want to be kings should remember what The French did with theirs?

        Whatever, I wish that more countries had similar self-belief to do such things.

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