The Low Drop pub in Attercliffe

[Sheffield History]

Does anyone have any information on a pub called Low Drop?

[rodbender 232]

Hi yes I remember the Low Drop it was a little pub in the middle of a load of steel firms I used to work as a wire drawer at a firm called Arther Lee & sons and used to call in there for a couple of pints after shift   happy days

[Guest leksand]

On 11/01/2021 at 09:27, Sheffield History said:

Does anyone have any information on a pub called Low Drop?

It was originally built around about 1898 as the Crown Inn, replacing an earlier, quite short lived beerhouse of the same name lost to works expansions. There is a nice picture here.

The brickwork ornament atop the corner is very typical of pub builds of that period. It came to Whitbread through their aquisition of Tennants, who in turn got it from Worksop & Retford who gained it by their take-over of Old Albion.

Don't know whether it ever got a full licence or continued (into the 70's and beyond?) as a beerhouse, but would be interested to know. Would also be interested to know precisely when it was closed & buldozed.

[Edmund]

I believe that Bessemer Road was originally an extension of Birch Road, the part around the dog leg being renamed in 1897.  In 1878 -81 Thomas Hopkinson ran the Crown Inn (beer house) at 116-118 Birch Road. Mr Hopkinson died there aged 51 in April 1887.  In September 1897 Jones & Colver, whose works bordered each side of Birch Road, obtained an order to close the road to amalgamate their works. This included the Crown Inn, and an application by the licensee Alfred Hartley, was granted to move the licence to new premises matching the old, which were to be erected on the corner of Bessemer Road and Faraday Road, 22 yards away.

The premises had a concert room, and in 1899 a customer on the verge of delirium tremens, slit his throat with a razor there, after consuming three ginger ales with the cry "Alf, I have done it!".  The customer, Joe Hallam, recovered and was prosecuted for attempted suicide.

Mr Hartley was still running the beer house in 1901.

[Guest leksand]

On 13/01/2021 at 10:53, Edmund said:

I believe that Bessemer Road was originally an extension of Birch Road, the part around the dog leg being renamed in 1897.  In 1878 -81 Thomas Hopkinson ran the Crown Inn (beer house) at 116-118 Birch Road. Mr Hopkinson died there aged 51 in April 1887.  In September 1897 Jones & Colver, whose works bordered each side of Birch Road, obtained an order to close the road to amalgamate their works. This included the Crown Inn, and an application by the licensee Alfred Hartley, was granted to move the licence to new premises matching the old, which were to be erected on the corner of Bessemer Road and Faraday Road, 22 yards away.

The premises had a concert room, and in 1899 a customer on the verge of delirium tremens, slit his throat with a razor there, after consuming three ginger ales with the cry "Alf, I have done it!".  The customer, Joe Hallam, recovered and was prosecuted for attempted suicide.

Mr Hartley was still running the beer house in 1901.

Birch Road traced a straight route northwesterly from Stevenson Road to Faraday Road and the original Crown sat at the eastern junction (of Birch & Faraday). Though the north-western end was enclosed by the works expansion noted above, and subsequent. Birch Road's earlier, full course remains evident in later maps. Bessemer Road coexisted with Birch Road whilst the latter was at its full extent (as the article you quote from suggests). As an educated guess I'd say the bulk of both roads sprang up through the early to mid 1870s.

The death of Hopkinson at the premises would rather indicate he ran it some way beyond 1881.

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Back on topic, the original request(s) still stand(s). Any information regarding the later history of the "Low Drop" would be very gratefully received.

Did it ever obtain a full licence & if so when?

When did it close?

When did it formally change it's name from the Crown?

Does anyone have any idea when Norman Kershaw ran in until?

Harold Pugh is reputed to have been landlord around 1978. Can anyone add any more flesh to the time he spent in charge?

Can you remember anyone else at the helm in the '70's or '80s (or even '90s?) ?

I'm almost certain the formal records of this have been destroyed. Finding any press record is a needle in a haystack job, and the later you go the less likely that there was ever a needle at all. So any recollections you share could be the only way any of this information is recovered and survives.

[RichardS]