One Sunday in a South East Yorkshire
The spring moons were aligned (well it was actually the planets apparently) a free Sunday with a Monday off work, enough Northern rail vouchers for a bargain day ranger and a need to be up in Yorkshire to help sort Dad’s estate. The plan to take the MalTravAle podcast trio on the rails Bruce was keen for us to sample Hebden Bridge, Halifax was mentioned but Sunday hours and the need for me and Nick to use Trans pennine first to get onto the Northern network meant we were at stalemate when we recorded our latest beery podcast (Episode 66 - do great pubs need a fire?) earlier in the week. Then I remembered that, we had all agreed some time ago, that we must try and get to Goole and visit the Tom Pudding micro bar. The guys at Tom Pudding had been with Shaun at York’s The Maltings, early listeners and supporters of the podcast - Tales of this Micro bar in an old newsagents in Goole (all reports said beer desert) had enticed us - checking the timetables yep Northern went to Goole and we could go via Doncaster which meant I could also tick off another of my targets The Draughtsman Alehouse on Platform 3b of Doncaster station - another wonderful restored Victorian refreshment room. (Nick had called on his way down to our Sheffield crawl - Podcast Episode 41 and blog https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8337061820926475697/3395953710829109964
The plan was for the three of us to meet at York station at 9:45 on the first Sunday in March, two of us made it a Girls guide emergency meant Bruce would only join us for a mid day pint or two. Still, it was a lovely Spring day with blue skies and what’s not to love starting a journey in York’s wonderful station
Our train was bang on time and unlike the scrum trying to get on the Edinburgh trains as engineering works we’re limiting the number of trains, we had a very leisurely on boarding, we needed to change at Leeds and having 40 minutes we kicked off the day at the subtly named The station Concourse Wetherspoons on Leeds station.
Rammed for a Sunday morning-a pair of Oakham beers the only real choice apart fromthe usual Abot Ale£ and I'm sad to say the ubiquitous Titanic Porter. Oakham JHB" light crisp refreshing bitter 3.8 ABV- a quick look on the Brewery's website beer named after Oakham born Sir Jeffrey Hudson" a adventurer courtier and dwarf in the service of King Charles 1st (the one who had his head chopped off)-he was known as Lord Minimus as he was only 3ft 6 tall. The brewery states that "his modest strength was more than made up for in his character-like the beer."
A busy Leeds station Spoons 10:30 am on a Sunday Morning
A pint and a sausage butty later and it was time to jump on another quiet Northern train that took us through the former coalfields of Castleford,
In Yorkshire's bottom right hand corner-perhaps a forgotten city-muddy races as it holds the first classic and the oldest the St Leger. traditionally the close of the Flat racing season in England. Doncaster is actually, also one of the Uk's newest cities, applying for such status in 202, as part of Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee.
At the time of the application, Doncaster was actually had a population larger than the long established cities of Hull, Southampton and Newcastle.
Built on Iron with sideways industries of railway works (building iconic locomotives such as the Flying Scotsman and Mallard), tractor production and steel ropes.
The town is also home to Parkinson’s Inventors of butterscotch. Nuttalls Mintoes and 'too good to hurray 'Murray Mints. Aviation has also had a strong tie to the city both in War and Civil street. The racecourse was a venue for the first ever airshows and in the First World War, the racecourse was also used as one of the first RAF fighter plane bases. A more permanent airport was developed in between the wars, this was then used as a World War 2 airfield, the base for Spitfire fighter 616 Squadron and then the 271 Transport Squadron.
After the war it reverted back to a civilian airfield which was finally closed in 1992. An alternative site was developed as Doncaster Sheffield Airport more commonly referred to as Robin Hood Airport on another former RAF airstrip RAF Finningley. Robin Hood closed in 2022 but there are plans for it to
reopen in 2026
Doncaster Pub Scene
Whilst not really known as a pub Mecca, Doncaster did reach a degree of notoriety in 2017 when a video of a ‘normal afternoon’ in the town's Coach and Horses went viral - Only 23 seconds long, people have traveled from as far as Australia to take a drink in the pub.
A bit of research pulled up that the Hall Cross pub was the site of the Stocks brewery- the pub for a long time was the centre for real ale in Donny, but it changed hands, fell into the doldrums and even stopped serving cask beer,however now refurbished the new owners have also commissioned near by Welbeck Abbey Brewery to brew both old and new Stock beers including Old Horizontal and Select.
However, the main target of our visit and the type of real ale nirvana we are rather partial too was a former Victorian station buffet bar brought back to life as a Micro bar.
A glimpse of another refreshment room ale house
The Draughtsman Alehouse on Platform 36 which had laid empty for 18 years, the name is in honour of Barry Melvin Godfrey Thompson, the original draughtsman of the Doncaster Locomotive Works opened in 1853 and the main workshop of LNER building locomotives such as the earlier mentioned Flying Scotsman and Mallard.
There is a wonderful photographic collage of the both the bars transformation and the workshops.
Donny Drinker the mag of doncaster.camra.org. uk includes a useful map of CAMRA endorsed pubs, a number of the pubs and same website also proved a Donny Dozen leaflet https://www.visitdoncaster.com/things-to-do/doncaster-ale-trail/
The town was once dominated by solid independent breweries Shipstones, Wards, Sam Smiths, Home Ales. Barnsley Brewery had four pubs in the town centre, apparently there were no free houses.
Bruce’s Girl Guide emergency meant he only had an hour with us, so we decided do do Donny part 1 in the Draughtsman, set off to Goole and then do Donny part 2 on the way back. This is small bar, but does have seating out on the platform outside and hadily the station toilets are next door. It was pretty full for an early Sunday afternoon there’s probably seating for around 20 inside with a small bar at the far end with blackboard beer board - generally3-4 cask and an interesting range of keg lines.
I managed a Pentrich Soma and Lost Cause Skip to the end - both new ticks for me and in fine form. It was a race day so there was a fair flow of punters in and out of the bar (Its plastic glasses only outside). Saying farewell to Bruce we hopped on another quiet Northern train for the 20 minute ride to Goole
Goole Station
Goole on the web www.goole-on-the-web.org.uk reports that in the 1990's, Goole had two types of drinking establishments. the first kind were those too loud, full of kids drinking alcopops and people fighting and then the pubs and clubs where you went for a quiet drink and decent atmosphere. fire street was the flesh pot centre of town though known to locals as Blood Alley. We were keen to see what the scene was like in the 20’s.
Again like Donny, research suggested, that the majority of pubs were traditional brewery tied houses. The 1st cain pub was Wetherspoons, which took over the old Midland Bank (previously the York City and County bank) an imposing building which still dominates the roundabout at the end of the high street.Traditionally the docks were awash with pubs as well as boats. There also appear to have been lots of working mens clubs, many now long gone.
A Sobriety Project Report of 1890 reports there were 19 Pubs and 8 Beer houses nestled around the Barge Dock alone, many with maritime inspired names - loading the barges must have been thirty work.
The Jolly sailor
The Cape of Good Hope
The Anchor Inn
The Dock Tavern
The Mariners Arms
The Ship Hotel
The Keel Inn
The Three Sugar loafs
Our target, the Tom Pudding Micro Bar opened in 2017 in a converted newsagent very close to Railway station. However we were a little early so first strode along the rather communist bloc inspired high street to the City and County Wetherspoons