ReviewApprox 10 minutes walk from the centre of Doncaster (with thanks to previous posters for advising about the short cut through the bus station) is The Three Horseshoes. Situated over the far side of North Bridge in an area of industrial Doncaster, and hence off the city centre “circuit”, and close to a major roundabout, it’s a prominent stand alone building. With a couple of large motor dealers close by and no residential housing immediately visible, it’s not obvious to the first time visitor what the customer base is or where it comes from. Being in the opposite direction to Doncaster F C ‘s Keepmoat Stadium, it doesn’t get pre match trade. A notable and unusual feature is solar panels on the sloping roof.
Externally, it looks a bit tired, as though it has seen better days and, on my Saturday lunchtime visit, I was in promptly at 12 noon opening, but no other customers arrived until shortly before 1 pm.
It’s a large multi roomed pub that, despite some obvious alterations and opening up, still retains some character and a traditional pub feel, enhanced by original stained glass leaded windows denoting “Tap Room”, Bar Parlour” etc and, notably, a “Club Room” upstairs, which doesn’t appear to be in use nowadays. In days long gone, there was, evidently, an Off Sales Dept.
A central door leads into a large lounge on the right hand side with fixed cushioned seating and modern looking light pine wood tables. A brick fireplace has a woodburner. The Health and Safety brigade have presumably been here as a prominent notice tells us that “this is a fire, so it’s probably hot. Touch it at your own risk”. The walls are decorated with a variety of own pictures ( eg – Desert Orchid at Cheltenham ), but there’s no dominant theme.
Off this room are two further cosier smaller rooms – a “Smoke Room “ and a “Bar Parlour”. Of these the Bar Parlour is the more interesting and attractive room, with a fine fireplace. High up on a shelf here is a framed list of landlords from 1800. Next to this is a framed short potted history of the pub, from which we learn that it first opened in 1783 as a beerhouse and was rebuilt in 1914. It’s now a freehouse with the current landlady having bought the lease off Punch Taverns. In the 19th century inquests were often held at the pub, often of people who had drowned in the river running alongside. Whether this was due to imbibing too much beer is not mentioned. There’s also a number of interesting old photos of Doncaster and the pub itself in days long gone.
On the left of the pub’s central entrance, and served from the same central servery, is a “Tap Room”. This is more modern in style, clearly designed for a younger clientele, with a number of high tables and stools and a dartboard and pool table. There’s a fine collection of football scarves and flags on the ceiling and the walls bear testimony to the wide variety of real ales that have been served over the years. In the evening session, a TV high up on one wall was showing the west Ham v Man United game to a few lively groups of lads.
An outside seating area overlooks the River Don, which runs alongside, but the view is hardly idyllic.
The surviving original features, principally the stained glass leaded windows, earn the pub a place in CAMRA’s Yorkshire Regional Inventory of historic pub interiors and, pleasingly, the book is prominently displayed on sale on the bar counter.
On the real ale front, there’s 2 handpumps, but with only Barnsley’s Acorn Bitter available on my visit – and, at a price of £ 2.72p – notably more expensive than The Plough ( round the corner from the station ), where it was only £ 2.20p.A notice indicated that a second beer, Clearwater, would be coming soon on the other pump. The beer was in good form, but, in the post match evening session, when the pub was busier, it was noticeable that most of the other customers in the lounge bar were drinking John Smiths (and most of them were of advanced years who you might therefore have expected to know better). The pub is in the CAMRA 2014 Good Beer Guide (note that it appears under Bentley as opposed to Doncaster)
I quite enjoyed the visit but, taking things as a whole, there probably isn’t enough here to recommend this pub to the first time visitor to Donny )
