May 2026. Sheffield.
Joan and Dave reached the end of their world tour of Yorkshire in Sheffield, stopping overnight in Retired Martin Towers to admire the beauty of our “natural” garden.
The cultural tour for Americans takes in the cathedral, Millennium Galleries, Town Hall,
the former newspaper HQ that now houses German Doner Kebab,
and a bank that’s now the home of Thornbridge’s flagship.
The Fargate is the place you take Americans, it seems.
But the Southworths had come for the trad, not the new, and via a circuitous route on the Number 95 that mean a downward rather than upward walk, we reached the Blake.
Dave claimed the signature show from the top of the hill.
The Blake was one of the reasons we picked Walkley to live all those years ago (2020),
and today it was the exemplar English pub. The Fargate felt like a place folk visit, the Blake a place where folk live. Joan set the pace on the Wensleydale.
An unhurried afternoon ended in the Blind Monkey, another pun where you never see the same people twice,
though I bet Dave wished he was there the next night as he took in the hail over Heathrow before their flight.
Hurry back, Joan and Dave.
retiredmartin 