Not already a member?
Join our community and
- Rate & review pubs
- Upload pictures
- Add events
JOIN for free NOW
Chat about:
New pub visits 2024 with Mobyduck
on the Pub Forum
Detail Pages
Three Horse Shoes, Doncaster
Doncaster
DN5 9AG
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 7½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Old Boots left this review about Three Horseshoes
Little to add to John Bonser's fulsome description. A two bar local's pub in Camra's Yorkshire Inventory although I couldn't see why, it has an Edwardian exterior but inside is fairly modernised except the bar parlour mentioned below.
The central servery has two hand pumps facing the lounge side, with Black Sheep Bitter and Acorn Barnsley Bitter though a multitude of interesting clips decorates part of the public bar, there is a pool table in here as well. The lounge has an L shaped stand up area plus a sitting room to the side with settles, chairs and small square tables. There is also a door to the "bar parlour" but sadly I couldn't get in to see it due to some noisy, unyielding, youngish locals. Otherwise a perfectly friendly pub. A few general pictures and photos provide decor. It's also in the 2015 GBG. As said by others if coming from the railway station it's probably easiest reached from the bus station exit, crossing the subterranean bus road then turn left, go over the car park exit and then up the spiral staircase to North Bridge. It's a bit far from anything else except maybe the White Swan in Frenchgate which leads onto the North Bridge and I'm not sure it's worth the walk if you're short of time.
On 8th March 2015
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 3269 recommendations about 2978 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
John Bonser left this review about Three Horseshoes
Approx 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 )
On 18th April 2014
- rating: 6
[User has posted 560 recommendations about 560 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
hondo . left this review about Three Horseshoes
Located across the railway lines and river from the town centre. Old style interior with a central bar serving 2 real ales on my visit.
On 13th May 2013
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 2883 recommendations about 2820 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about Three Horseshoes
A bit of a yomp away from the hub of other worthwhile Donny pubs (though as described below there is a sneaky cut-through via the bus station), this one is sat in perhaps a less-than-desirable position, overshadowed by the bridge. It’s a large, attractive 20’s edifice though I did wonder on entering what I was letting myself in for but, as described by Will, the friendly landlady said hello and gave us a mini guided tour of the ongoing renovations and preservations. The description below needs little embellishment from me; suffice to say that elements of the multi-roomed layout have been preserved and that leaded stained glass windows are a very nice touch. Three pumps with two ales (the aforementioned Acorn Barnsley Bitter and Doom Bar) with another (different) Acorn clip turned. My Barnsley Bitter was in very good nick and slipped down a treat. An unusual exterior feature was the solar panels on the roof – not many pubs with those. If you have a bit of time in Donny, give this one a whirl as it deserves your support.
On 31st August 2012
- rating: 7
[User has posted 5099 recommendations about 5082 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Will Larter left this review about Three Horseshoes
This could have been the pub that time forgot, and in less enthusiastic hands than the current landlady you could easily imagine it being boarded up or demolished. Thanks to the loving care she has brought to its preservation, it is now flourishing nicely in its apparently unfavourable location by a roundabout at the end of Doncaster's New Bridge. (In fact it's easily accessible from the railway station by a short cut through the bus station - trust me, I've done it!)
And it's worth the walk, with three hand pumps on the central bar and the traditional multi-roomed layout preserved, minus only the old off-sales entrance. Look out for the stained glass labels de-marking the individual rooms. Beers available on our visit were Sharps Doom Bar and the very drinkable Acorn Barnsley Bitter. The (apparently rather ugly) 1950s fireplace in the former smoke room has been removed, leaving a bare-brick chimney; the bar parlour is as it must have been for several decades, and the front room is now the "boys' room", with a high table and a red baize pool table. In the drinking corridor that nearly encircles the bar there are a number of old photos and other pictures that will occupy any time that is not spent in conversation. A proper pub, well worth a visit.
On 25th August 2012
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3746 recommendations about 3483 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
louise emery left this review about Three Horseshoes
CAMRA Pub of the Season Summer 2010
On 22nd August 2010
- rating: 10
[User has posted 1 recommendations about 1 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
James Joines left this review about The Three Horseshoes Hotel
Real Ale available
On 1st April 2010
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 841 recommendations about 835 pubs]