The Stocks pub Ecclesfield: Landlady selling up with pledge to make sure it remains a pub

But Joanne Briggs, landlady at The Stocks pub in Ecclesfield, has decided it is finally time for someone else to take charge of the venue where she has worked since 1987.

Joanne has put the well-known venue up for sale, and is looking to retire from the business after all those years.

But she is determined that whoever takes over will keep it running as a pub after she leaves, and has pledged to remain a familiar face as she plans to visit as a regular customer in the future.

Joanne said: “My mum, Sheila Renshaw had the pub before I did, and ran it with Alan Frith. Mum had started off running a beer-off at Woodhead Road near Bramall Lane in 1966, before running a café on Queens Road. After that she ran the Horse and Jockey Attercliffe, before she took over here at the Stocks in March 1984."

Joanne took over running the pub after her mum, who died six years ago, had retired. She was already working at The Stocks from 1987, and has more recently been running it along with her own daughter.

She is now in the process of selling the pub, on Stocks Hill, and has had offers, from people who are wanting to continue running the site as a pub. Joanne, aged 61, is keen to sell it to someone who plans to keep it on as a pub, as she lives in the area and plans to be a customer after she has retired.

"The people who are interested in it want to do food,” she said. “It will be the first time the pub’s done food, because we never did, but I think every pub needs food nowadays.”

She says she has many fond memories of her time at the pub, including putting on buffets for her best customers at New Year.

But she decided to retire after breaking her pelvis in a fall last year. She recovered from her injuries but decided at that point she would like to be able to spend more time with her family. She hopes to mix that with voluntary work at the local hospitals.