The Victoria, Dronfield

Locals pub on the western side of town, doing good business early on a Friday evening. The interior comprises a three-part L-shaped layout, with the bar counter and a few high stools in the centre, a compact pool area to the left and the larger lounge extending back on the right-hand side. Just Bradfield Farmers Blonde (£3.20) from the three handpumps, but at least this was in good shape.

A back street local with a light, modern feel to it. The bar has three hand pumps with Bradfield Farmers Blonde and a beer called Barlow Sesh from a brewery called Collyfobble (which I think used to be called Barlow Brewery, just outside Dronfield). This beer was in very good condition though not really to my taste. This pub is mostly pretty smart and seems well run, but there are a number of hand-written notices taped to the bar back, which is never a good look.

Facebook page of The Victoria - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of The Victoria - www.facebook.com

A tidy-looking corner pub by Sainsburys. Three ales were on (Banks Bitter, Pedigree and something called One Eyed Jack from Concertina, a Mexborough brewery). My half of Jack was OK and came in at £1.50. There’s a fairly standard interior layout with a modern veneer (red and white painted walls and fittings), clean and tidy and there’s some traditional-style leaded cross-hatching on the modern double-glazed windows. Some local magazines and the CAMRA branch newsletter were available which helped pass the time nicely. Sky Sports News was the main source of everyone else’s entrainment on my Saturday afternoon visit. The punters in here were more welcoming of strangers than a number of other nearby venues and service at the bar was genuinely friendly. The perennially flashing fruit machine was annoyingly placed, no matter where I looked I could sense the damn thing. Overall they certainly seem to be doing the right things here and I’d be happy enough to return again. A solid local.