Visiting the old folks on Tuesday, I was wandering up and down Ecclesall Road (womenfolk exploring the shops etc) and I thought I would relive my youth and popped into the Nursery for a pint.

What happened and when?

I admit this was the first time I had been in for over twenty years since moving away, and I know that many pubs have all been 'done' - but this was a unique place - with all it's little rooms, antiques and the dominant landlady (what was her name?)

When I had a flat on Broomgrove road back in the early 70's this was my local - at that time they even had waiter service.

Ah well - signs of the times - no escaping barn -like drinking holes, inncessant music and posters everywhere advertsisng cheap booze

Now where did I put my Saga magazine and Grecian 2000?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by docmel
Visiting the old folks on Tuesday, I was wandering up and down Ecclesall Road (womenfolk exploring the shops etc) and I thought I would relive my youth and popped into the Nursery for a pint.

What happened and when?

I admit this was the first time I had been in for over twenty years since moving away, and I know that many pubs have all been 'done' - but this was a unique place - with all it's little rooms, antiques and the dominant landlady (what was her name?)

When I had a flat on Broomgrove road back in the early 70's this was my local - at that time they even had waiter service.

Ah well - signs of the times - no escaping barn -like drinking holes, inncessant music and posters everywhere advertsisng cheap booze

Now where did I put my Saga magazine and Grecian 2000? [/QUOTEpubs arn't cosy anymore

I remember this Pub from way way back when it had all sorts of knick-knacks, curios on high shelves all around the various rooms,but what me and my mates really went went there for was because it always had the most gorgeous barmaids,need I say more???

the landlady's name was Mrs.Jenkins .I bought a a lot of her antiques and things from her when she moved to live with her daughter and German son in law in a village near Huddersfield .She was a real character , many stories there , and was elderly when she retired .I offered her £800 for a table she had upstairs - no no she said , that's too much give me £500 - we settled on £600 and were both happy , as you say must be 20 years ago .She ran a good pub no nonsense plenty of respect .
Abi.

I worked there in the early 1990s when i moved back to sheffield from london.
was a great pub....nice customers, nice staff....Paul the boss was a nice guy. heard he'd left the pub trade and is now a driving instructor!!!??

:D

Yeh it was my local student haunt in the late 90's. I remember it closing for a while a few years ago to be renovated into what it is now. To fit in with the trendy pub scene!

I have great memories of the place, the bar was on the right as u walked in the front door and i remember the sticky carpet from the beer spillages! pool table and little rooms - sadly all gone now!

Yeah , Docmel , you must have had a terrible shock ! The Nursery was unique in its way and the sort of pub everybody imagines when they think of England ; now it's just one amongst many.
I first visited the Nursery in 1950 , as a 9 year old , sitting in the back garden with my parents. Even then , I liked , "the feel " of the place.I'm sure that in the garden there were various children's games -----I definitely remember a see-saw. The big tree was lit up at dusk with fairy lights. Through the back window you could see men playing snooker in that small back room they had , with the special-sized snooker table [5/7ths. I think ].
A few years later I was going in as a customer and went in on and off for a long time . The customers were a really varied lot and with a good core of regulars , it's what made it an interesting place.
Vera {Mrs. Jenkins } didn't serve a lot of food but did one speciality at lunchtime---hot pork sandwiches. Someone told me it got a mention in Enon Ronay's guide but , can't vouch for that.
All in all , very sad to see such a place disappear. Obviously Time doesn't automatically mean Progress !

Fareast,

I had forgotten the pork sarnies!!!

When I went in last week it looked like the garden was now a car park.

You were right about the customers - when I lived near there I would often pop in for a 'going home pint' after work. At that time it was mainly the guys from Eccesall / Dore and Totley having a quick snifter before home. Then as the evening wore on the student crowd would appear and, like you said, there was this magic mix - young and old, from all backgrounds - very few pubs outside of London achieve that, so why the brewery had to change it, gawd only knows.

Everywhere I go it seems like breweries have never heard of the saying - "If it aint broke then it don't need fixing" and rip apart some grand old licensed premises when what they should be doing is converting more old banks etc into trendy bars for the youngsters

Sorry - it is a bit of a soap box with me - I was bought up in the licensed trade and have fond memories of the late 50's being taken around pubs with my grandad - before they opened for the day - even now I will never forget that unique smell that all pubs had back then - all the larger pubs with snooker rooms - bell pushes for the waiters and larger than life landords.

Sundays all the men wore suits and Saturday nights was for the ladies and singing along to the piano - many times I have fallen asleep to the sound of the 'tap room' choir from the pub opposite where we used to live

Better stop now before I get too nostalgic - I am begining to sound like my dad - and he is in his 80's

ah what memories,i lived in the area and me and my mate tony sandivasci had our first pint there,underage of course but it was the best we ever tasted it became our local,

Gentlemen

I am sure your memories are shared by thousands of Sheffielders - and me- the most classy pub in Sheffield utterly ruined- also what about the old Pomana? Ecclesall Roadis now finished as a a proper drinking area.

Time Gentlemen Please-Bless You All.
WB

thats where our memories lie,things change but for us not the better, i had a seriouse motorbike accident outside the nursery,no got me a drink lmao, i moved on to american cars and we used to go up ringinglow road to the norfolk arms i think its called,times gone by,after the nurssery we used to walk up to dales chippy if we couldnt afford an uncle sams

I worked there in the late 80's and I was the pork sarnie maker. Which was utterly bad as I could scoff as much pork as I wanted :D

I loved working in the nursery it was a pub with character.

the pub was done up twice. once in the mid 80's [ approx] when they got rid of all the small rooms and opened it up. it was then that paul took over from mrs Jenkins. I once was in the general cemetary with my dog and a german shepherd joined in and i was throwing sticks for the two dogs for ages. After Mrs jenkins came up as it was her dog. She thanked me for giving her dog the exercise she couldnt, as she was getting on in age then. She invited me to come into the pub next time i was around and she bought me a few pints, lovely lady.
Also Paul was a good landlord and the pub was still a good one with a various clientele.
It was when they changed it around the late 90's [again approx] which really ruined it. It was just aimed at the student market, which i suppose isnt suprising given its location, but a shame none the less.A new landlord was put in place after the refurb.
I went in a while ago and there were plates all over the place while the bar staff just chatted ehind the bar, and its now a 15 minute wait to get served at busy times.
Needless to say i very rarely go in now.
I was in there on the last day before the 90's refurb and they were selling everything off. i got a tv for a fiver which lasted me for about 10 years.

A piece of historical info re the Nursery.
During the 1890's it was the occasional venue for Sheffield area running clubs.
Races were held from there to Forge Dam and back.

I worked in Broomhall street in the 60,s and we used to go to the Nursery for a pint and a sandwich at lunchtimes.Why do pork sandwiches not taste so good anymore???I cannot even replicate them at home!!!

A piece of historical info re the Nursery.
During the 1890's it was the occasional venue for Sheffield area running clubs.
Races were held from there to Forge Dam and back.

Well it did well there then, considering it was built in the 1930's. Mrs Jenkins parents moved from the old South Sea (I think) at Broomhill, they were the first to run it. Mrs J's husband eventually took over the lease but it was always her who was the driving force. When he died Mrs J laid his coffin in state on the snooker table on a Sunday for folk to pay their respects, snooker was never played on a Sunday after that whilst she was in charge.

It was the best pub I ever used, such fantastic memories, loads of friends made (some sadly no longer with us). However, all I have to do if close my eyes and think back, everyone is there in their 20's, such happy days.

I worked there 1967 -1969. Mrs Jenkins was a lovely lady who really took care of her staff, always worried about me walking home alone and would ask customers to watch I got home okay.

Can't these chuffs leave anything alone, makes my blood boil, change for the sake of change.:mad::mad::mad:

Pubs were definitely fun places to be in the 60's. If we had nowt to do on a Satdy neet, we'd hop on the 55 bus at Crosspool and do a pub crawl round the city centre starting at the Museum then on to the Stonehouse and a few more. All the pubs were cheerful, had good ale and we avoided any trouble spots. We'd then hop on a bus to the York in Broomhill and hopefully get back to Crosspool for one in the Tavern and the last one pulled by Mrs Blenkinsop at the Sportsman. I doubt if I'd find it much fun now - nor would my liver.

People - I started this thread five years ago - and still it reappears now and again - with much the same theme - why on God's earth do 'design and concept' teams bugger about with places that don't need buggering about with in the first place?

By all accounts the Nursery was one of the best, most well know pubs in Sheff outside the city centre

Did the students ask for the rehash? - don't think so
Did the 'oldies'? - definitely not by all accounts
Did the landlord/manager? - probably didn't have a say in it.

So who decides? - same people who thought that the tower blocks etc would promote better community living and Vic Hallam was a decent architect

...sorry here I go again - only just saw the thread by accident and was'nt going to say 'owt but it still gets me goat even after all this time since I last went in.

...is Uncle Sams still there? - that was another place that was pretty dam good - upto that point all we had in Sheff re burgers was Wimpy - along came this place - real burgers and real good music - happy days

People - I started this thread five years ago - and still it reappears now and again - with much the same theme - why on God's earth do 'design and concept' teams bugger about with places that don't need buggering about with in the first place?

By all accounts the Nursery was one of the best, most well know pubs in Sheff outside the city centre

Did the students ask for the rehash? - don't think so
Did the 'oldies'? - definitely not by all accounts
Did the landlord/manager? - probably didn't have a say in it.

So who decides? - same people who thought that the tower blocks etc would promote better community living and Vic Hallam was a decent architect

...sorry here I go again - only just saw the thread by accident and was'nt going to say 'owt but it still gets me goat even after all this time since I last went in.

...is Uncle Sams still there? - that was another place that was pretty dam good - upto that point all we had in Sheff re burgers was Wimpy - along came this place - real burgers and real good music - happy days

Its all down to european law,one person must be able to see all rooms from behind one bar!!!I wonder how all the men and women who have fought for thier country against dictatorship feel about Brussels dictating to us now!!!!!!!!!! Just another british tradition going to the wall!!!! Progress? I think not.:mad:

Architects ought to made to live in some of the crap that they design - anyone know an Architect that lives in a 1960's Tower Block ?

I won't hold my breath.

As docmel & normanmarina say-----just another example of how grass-roots democracy has been effectively throttled in the U.K.------partly by Europe, partly by our own home-grown Control Freaks & Social Fascists------and of course, all aided by the sheep-like attitude of many millions of John Bull 's Stout Yeomenry-------well, ' stout ', anyway.

What a pub ! it was the place to be ...where rich and not so rich mixed ...and of course students ... all wooden pannelling on the walls ...endless antiques including the famous chinese vase on the staircse which stood around 5feet . You could guarantee a party to go on too at the weekends ..I met a lot of nice people there and some not so nice ...the best pub ever ..!for me.

Does anyone remember the young men in white waiters jackets who used to wait on the tables and I seem to remember there were bell pushes on the walls behind the seating to summon the waiters. It always struck me as a lttle sexist as Vera only employed women behind the bar and men waiting on.
I think this was in the seventies. Can anyone help confirming my recollection and the dates.

Shooter-----I think what you remember was probably all true------certainly, they had the waiters in white jackets [ Going off on a slight tangent-----a pub that definitely had the bells AND the waiters , at least up to the 1970 's [ ? ] was the Porter Cottage on Sharrowvale Road. This was before the students dominated the place and a lot of the regulars were roughly the same mixture as the Nursery at the same time----old and young, rich and poor, beautiful and ugly. bad and good------plus a fair number of eccentrics to round it all off-----great places ! ]

I worked there in the late 80's and I was the pork sarnie maker. Which was utterly bad as I could scoff as much pork as I wanted :D

I loved working in the nursery it was a pub with character.

fox20thc... if you made the pork sandwiches in the Nursery then you should be hailed as a provider of one of the greatest culinery delights on the planet, well certainly one of the best that this bloke has tasted. Step aside Jamie Oliver.

I worked at James Neill for a short while and the Nursery was a regular lunch time treat, I know the beer was good but for the life of me I can't remember which brewery. Can anyone help.

Stones, also they did very nice sausage sarnies