2nd Jul 2026
Community Hero Award: Celebrating Leonie of The Steamboat, Lossiemouth
The Castle Inn, is a lovely village situated in Bolderstone, Sheffield. Ey up! Unfortunately, this pub previously had a lot of inconsistency and confusion for the locals in the village, and this site was really striving for someone to fully turn it around to be the community hub it deserves to be. Along came Laura and catherine, who had many ideas how they wanted to make improvements to the pub and its reputation, and really give it a new lease of life. Since taking over, we wanted to know the biggest changes or improvements they’ve made or are the midst of making to the pub.
Speaking to Laura, we learnt about the major refurb that is planned commencing early 2026, but they stated they decided to put their own spin on the brands and everything they offer in the pub. ‘We’ve listened a lot to the regulars that come in and even younger people that come from university that come from afar just for that country/village feeling for the food or just a drink’. As well, the Kitchen equipment wasn’t to a great standard, so this was fully refurbished and they opened for food again in June, serving homecooked food. For the winter months, they are looking at introducing a takeaway menu. Externally, the outside was tidied up with the beer garden area being painted, as well as flowers across this area and also the front elevation of the pub. They said ‘All these little touches just to make it feel and look better’. As village pubs play a big role in the community, we were curious in how they have worked to strengthen its connection with local residents/businesses and what they have installed to achieve this goal. The first thing being, the Castle inn sell local honeys/marmalade that is made in the village – building local community. They have homemade table flower decorations made from young DofE partakers raising money for it. Fitted a water tap at side of pub for dog walkers, Local art work in the pub from Luke Horton, a local artist in Sheffield, regulars have bought in their old pictures to make it more of a community feel. And the pub also has a selection of games, books etc. ‘It’s about creating a nice space and atmosphere for everybody but thinking at the time same what every individual might want. If someone comes in on their own. Always something for someone’
Laura also stated, ‘we have plans to open a mini shop out of the unused room that used to be a bathroom so will be knocked out and redesigned. There’s only one shop in the village which is down the hill. We serve quite a few elderly people or widows that don’t really get out much, but them being able to have that capability to help themselves for essentials will be great’ what a lovely touch!
Cask ales are a massive thing in country pubs so Castle Inn push this, they said ‘we do rotations of the type of ales we have on. We do polls on socials asking what ales they want to see, making sure we are engaging constantly so they always feel like they are being heard.’
Finally, after hearing about all the amazing things the team at Castle Inn have done for the site, as well as the ventures to come in the future, we wanted to know if they have heard from locals about how they reel about the next direction of where the pub is heading in. Laura said ‘The first day when we moved in, we could tell all the villagers were curious what was going on, it was the not knowing for them in what was happening. So when it closed before, it was the case off not knowing if it will reopen or what was coming next and the community just wanting some structure/consistency I think in a way. We have had positive feedback the whole way round. The structure, the transparency we give, and the way the pub is going and continues to go, they are happy with it’ it’s evident the focus for them is catering to the villagers/community which makes such a difference to peoples experienced in a pub, feeling appreciated and cared for and this is clearly going a long way for the Castle and its amazing how much it has turned a new leaf and completed flipped its reputation from the amazing work the current tenants are doing. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for it!.
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