320 Haggstones Road
Worrall
Sheffield
S35 0PD
07710 269687
The Blue Ball is a community pub in the village of Worrall north west of Sheffield (photo 1). Each week the pub has a quiz, a meat raffle, a fruit and veg stall, plus occasional karaoke and visits from the Oughtibridge Brass band.
It is one of the pubs that has maintained the tradition of ‘Sheffield Carols’ and every Sunday lunchtime from mid November to Christmas carols are sung in the bar. The story goes that in the 19th century the churches and chapels in the area banned the singing of carols for being too jolly, and rather than give them up the locals went to the pub to sing them. Some of the carols are well known but many are not, and the repertoire at each pub is different. There are a huge number of versions of While Shepherds Watched, many named after the village they originated from.
The pub was first recorded in 1825 but is probably older, and spent some time as a coaching inn. It had a makeover in the 1930s from Tennants Brewery of Sheffield and that is when the leaded windows were added (photo 2).
