Sheffield – Real Ale in the 1970s

When I was in Sheffield, the locally produced CAMRA magazine, Beer Matters, had been published and it was the five hundredth issue. They were looking back at the history of real ale in the city and in 1975 there was a bar crawl of the city which took in every single real ale being sold. This totalled ten cask beers, of which four were on handpump and six on electric pump, along with a few real ales in bottles. The cost of these beers, and the buses to get between them, cost £3.

We are fortunate indeed for the many volunteers within CAMRA who established the organisation and have ensured we’re not in a similar position today with such a limited choice. The magazine also notes that if someone attempted the same pub crawl today, visiting every pub, it would take at least forty nights and days to complete.