Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
Is that click-baity? And who might it attract if so!
The side of the Rutland Arms (which can also be seen here), complete with a portion of Phlegm artwork peeking in from the lower-right.
But what can I see?
Peering into the smoke room
A monochrome eye!
Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Kodak Colorplus.
Taken on 16 May 2021
Another victim in the declining pub trade in the UK, the Farfield Inn stands at the western end of Neepsend Lane at the bottom of Hillfoot Road, not far from the busy route that is Penistone Road. There used to be pigeon lofts on the steep hillside along this stretch but those, like the Farfield Inn, have fallen into dereliction, their skeletal remains vaguely apparent in the brush that has grown to take their place.
“Fancy a nice pint?”
Would once have been said by those
Who visited here
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 9 May 2021
This is the Yellow Lion pub at Aston. I think I’ve only ever been inside once, and that was decades ago, mostly because it’s out of the local area. On the day I made these photos it was closed, the second tranche of lockdown easing that would allow pubs to open for customers in outdoor seating yet to arrive. Now, I expect it will be serving people outside and, unless the situation changes, probably for indoor service later this month.
Some disappointment with my Plustek scanner has arisen. I’ve spotted it might have developed a fault as I’ve noticed feint vertical bars on some of my photos. While they are only noticeable on shots with areas of low contrast (clear skies and so forth), and not immediately visible unless you’re really looking for them, now I’ve noticed I can’t un-notice the problem. Oddly it only seems to be affecting colour negative scans – slides don’t seem to have any sign of the issue, and neither do B&W negatives. Whatever the case, I’ve sent a message to Plustek to see if there’s a way to fix the problem, but in the meantime I’ll just have to put up with it.
I’m feeling concerned
My scanner has a problem
I hope it can be fixed
Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Kodak Colorplus.
Taken on 5 April 2021
The Three Tuns pub in Sheffield. I was told by a friend that it is supposedly haunted, and a quick bit of Googling reveals reports on people being prodded by an invisible finger, and the sounds of an unseen crying woman in the cellar. If it says it on the internet then I guess it must be true, eh? 🙂
The shot was made with my £1-from-a-car-boot-sale Fuji DL-270 Zoom Super (which already had this roll of film loaded). I don’t think I’ll keep the camera – I have several other compacts already – but I’m very happy with a lot of photos from this roll. Not necessarily in terms of sharpness or anything, but in the way they look. I got some great colours in a lot of the pictures.
Fuji DL-270 Zoom Super & Kodak Colorplus. Grain2Pixel conversion.
Taken on 1 November 2020
After yesterday’s shot peeking through the window of the Ship Inn, here’s the outside – or part of it at least.
I can’t believe that this was almost a month ago already. I’m in some sort of disturbance in the space/time continuum, surely…
Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 1 November 2020
This is a view through the window of The Ship Inn. On Shalesmoor. In Sheffield. And, to continue the alliteration, it is shut.
Many pubs in the UK are closed at present because of stricter lockdown measures currently in place. While the rules differ across the four nations that make up the UK (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales), here in England pubs must remain closed unless thay are providing takeaway meals.
This situation will remain in place until early December at least, when the current rules will be reviewed. However, given the desire to allow people to see one another at Christmas – something itself fraught with risk – I don’t expect that pubs will re-open to anything approaching normal rules for a long time.
I suspect there will be fewer pubs come the end of this pandemic.
Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford Delta. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.
Taken on 1 November 2020
This is the corner of The Fat Cat, a pub in Sheffield’s Kelham Island area – somewhere I seem to make a lot of photographs, despite living nowhere near the the place.
The Fat Cat dates back to the Victorian era, being built in 1850. As a result of it’s age, and it’s position close to the course of the River Don, it was affected by the flood in 1864 when Dale Dyke resevoir collapsed catastrophically, killing over 240 people as the water descended it’s course to the centre of the city.
One-hundred-and-forty-three years later the pub was once again engulfed by flood water, this time caused by torrential rain. Three people lost their lives in this event.
The pub has two markers painted on it’s wall denoting the water level of both floods.
Yashica Mat 124G & Ilford Delta 400. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°.
Taken on 1 November 2020
Spring is pretty much upon us and soon that lovely low winter sunshine will have retreated for another year, its effect only available to the early-birds and night-owl’s amongst us as we get further into summer. So here’s a photo of springtime early-morning sunshine bathing an appropriately named pub.
Minolta SRT 101b, Rokkor 50mm f/1.7 & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 27 February 2020
Dating back almost 550 years, the Old Queen’s Head is the oldest surviving domestic building in Sheffield, constructed at the end of the Plantagenet period. The building became a pub in the 1860s when the venue next door extended into this one. Prior to this the buidling was used as a house and may have been a banqueting hall before that. Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisonned in Sheffield in the late 16th century (although not in this building!) and it’s believed that this is where the pubs name is derived.
Holga 120N & Kodak Tmax 400.
Taken on 10 January 2020
Sheffield, as with many cities, towns and villages in the UK, has a significant number of closed pubs. Whereas pubs in residential areas and the city centre still survive (and thrive) – either due to footfall, location, or by adapting to changing tastes and becoming family orientated pub-restaurants – in places that were once centres of heavy industry, they haven’t fared so well.
The east-end of Sheffield was once carpeted with steel foundries, engineering firms, and manufacturing industry. While this is still the case to some extent, much of the heavy industry has gone and with it the huge numbers of workers keen to slake their thirst after their shifts came to an end.
The decline in this industry has also changed the residential makeup of the surrounding areas. Row upon row of terraced houses that used to house the workers and their families have now either been demolished, of are now inhabited by new generations less inclined to spend their leisure time in public houses. As a result of this, huge numbers of pubs in the area have been closed or re-purposed.
The picture today is of the Sportsman Inn, which is on Blackburn Road in Sheffield. The pub was acquired by Gilmours in 1906, so probably dates back earlier than that. The facade staes 1919, but that is apparently when the pub was rebuilt (perhaps after bomb damage during the first world war?). The pub probably closed sometime in the last five years as the WhatPub site last updated it’s page in 2016, when the pub appeared to be still trading.
Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Ilford HP5+.
Taken on 23 December 2019
Steel City Snapper photography 