RANDOM RAMBLES No. 10 – Wortley to Monk Bretton

How this works; I draw from a hat the names of two places in the area and visit these pubs and at two places in between. This time we wander from the furthest south settlement with a pub in the Branch area to the north east outskirts of Barnsley itself.

Our starting point is Wortley, home of Wortley Hall (which has a bar open to the public), the multi-award winning Wortley Men’s Club and our destination, the Wortley Arms. This fine old stone-built pub has a great reputation for food but can also be relied upon for a good choice of real ales – on this occasion, Taylor’s Landlord, Stancill Barnsley Bitter and Neepsend Blonde. We sat in the left-hand bar which, apart from a tiny snug, comprised the whole pub up until 1960. At that point, the current entrance arrangements were installed, including the splendid revolving door, and a lounge was created to the right. However, much of what you see today dates from further alterations in 1990 where the lounge was extended, including creation of a ‘snug’ from former living accommodation. The agreeable small back room tucked between the lounge and the car park also dates from this period, as probably does most of the lovely wall panelling. Anyway, back to the bar, which is mainly for drinking though a couple of table were reserved for food. It has a bare-boarded floor and comfy bench seating against three walls, two of which are of exposed stone – it’s a most pleasant place to sit. The menu is pretty extensive and, for the area, fairly expensive, with most mains in the £15 - £19.50 range – though food prices generally have increased recently for reasons we all understand too well.

Wortley Arms

Taking great care on exiting the car park (with its blindest of bends), we head via Birdwell to Worsbrough Village where, opposite the church, is another stone-built delight, the Edmunds Arms. It’s a Sam Smiths pub and you can read about the ‘curious world’ of this Tadcaster-based brewery elsewhere on this site. Like many of their pubs, it was closed recently for quite a long time but is happily up and running again. The usual Sam’s ‘rules’ still apply though – posters tell you, for instance, that this is Digital Detox Pub, where use of mobile phones is strictly prohibited. All that didn’t get in the way of a friendly welcome from both bar staff and locals and the place was pretty busy for an early Saturday afternoon. Not all Sam’s pubs offer real ale nowadays but the Edmunds still has their single cask offering, Old Brewery Bitter, at £3 a pint. It’s a well-made beer though a bit too malty for my tastes. Some Sam’s pubs once offered a second cask beer, the delicious, strong Museum Ale, but that disappeared in the late 90s. The front part of the pub has three inter-linked rooms with doors removed – the first carpeted, the second wood-floored and the third, where we sat, stone-flagged. All have beamed ceilings and tastefully restrained décor. There’s a large lounge at the back where most of the eating happens – food is served daily except Monday at lunchtimes and evenings (lunch only on Sunday).

Edmunds Arms

Next to Worsbrough Dale and a pub I’d never visited before, the Darley. The building has been extended at the front so it’s difficult to work out its age but the main part is probably Victorian. Inside, you can tell that it once had several rooms and though it’s all now been opened out, distinctly different drinking areas remain, plus a large pool-table-dominated, games area at the back. It’s pleasantly appointed with lots of padded bench seating and framed photos of old Worsbrough with an emphasis on its mining history (including Darley Main colliery which no doubt gives the pub its name). This is clearly very much a locals pub and all the better for that. However, the ale offering runs to nothing more exciting than keg Boddingtons and John Smiths.

The Darley

Our last stop took us into and out of Barnsley and up the hill to Monk Bretton and another pub opposite a church, the Norman Inn on Burton Road. This is a large, estate-style post-war pub that was refurbished by its owners, Marstons, in 2015, which is when real ale made an appearance. The main bar is a large, oblong space with a long and handsome bar counter, wood-block floor and a few partitions to break up the space. At the far end, and at right angles, is what had presumably been a separate lounge and which is now mainly used for dining. Food is pretty big here, the vast menu offering plenty of starter, sandwich and desert options plus burgers, steaks and ‘all-time favourites’ – the latter mostly keenly priced around the £8.50 mark, or £6.50 or so on the lunch time menu. The only real ale available was Marstons Pedigree (a good drop) though a 61 Deep pumpclip was turned round so may just have sold out. Not the world’s most exciting pub but a decent place to end a varied sortie.

Paul Ainsworth

The Norman Inn