Thursday, 27 March 2025

Tom Puds, Salt n Pepper pots and a sip into the Donny a dozen

Tom Puds, Salt n Pepper pots and a sip into the Donny a dozen

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

Recently refurbished in May 24, the bar still utilities the original bank counter. The original bank opened in 1832 as the York City and County Bank- there was also a pub next door the Barker Arms as always the pub walls are adorned with historic pictures and stories . Again this was a Spoons that’s looks to be doing very good busy we got the last table in the eating side lounge, the front area with the bar using the bank’s original counter is more pub by - a good range of local 

The other two main Goole landmarks are the town's two water towers which like much of the town span The two centuries when Goole was at its busiest.
The red brick tower was built in 1803 and the other white almost sci-fi like tower was built in 1926-at the time of its erection it was the largest water tower in the UK. with a capacity of 750.000 gallons. Locally known as the salt and Pepper pots. both are grade 11 listed. The big debate locally is which appears to be a very regular and repeated story on the local papers are which tower is salt and which is pepper.


A sideways glimpse of Goole’s Salt n pepper pots 
       A closer view - which is salt which is pepper?

Goole in 2026 will celebrate its 200 birthday since its creation as a purpose built" company town". The company in question was the Aire and Calder Navigation company linking Leeds to the river Ouse and North Sea. Coal was shipped along the canal in great volume, to maximise this a specif type of barge the Tom Pudding was invented in the 1860s, these were compartment boats from which coal was unloaded into ships by large hydraulic hoists. This system enabled the canal to carry at its peak more than 1.5 million tons of coal per year, and was not abandoned until 1986.

        A Tom pudding boat in action

The Tom Pudding micro pub is about a 7 minute walk from the rail station, a micro bar opened by two real ales fans Simon Javrrold and Alan Lowey in December 2017 in what had become a beer desert. In what was a former newsagent it’s a long thin pub with bar at the far end and some very snazzy toilets - think upmarket Asian restaurant. It was a tad busy for a lazy Sunday afternoon, the local rugby league team Goole Vikings were at home Barrow Raiders in the 1895 Cup and the pud is obviously a popular pre match watering hole, they were in good spirits and we managed to get a seat at the far end of the room opposite the bar. 


A nice range of cask and keg beers, my choice was a pint of Tenfoot from Yorkshire Brewhouse a new beer and brewery for me. Based in Hull, Yorkshire Brewhouse founded in 2017 produce a range of beers often with a Yorkshire catch - Ey Up bitter, Reet amber ale and well chuffed sting pale, tenfoot is a 3.9% Pale apparently named after Hull slang for back alley and very good it was too. It would have been good to visit the Pud on a quieter day and have a good look at the many photographs they have of Goole’s history and unsurprisingly lots of pictures like the one above of Tom Puddings. Glad we had made the journey and enjoyed the 40 mins we had in there before nipping back to the station and the train back to Donny.


Back to Donny and a small dip in the dozen

Doncaster Brewery+ Tap and Dystopia craft Bar all share the same building on Young street. tucked away a little on the edge of the main shopping area cash dominator the downstairs so cult 12 hand- pumps-one half Beer mainly the Brewery's own with a couple of guest and the left hand halt cider + Perry.
Upstairs the dystopia bar has 10 keg lines.


Donny brewery tap.

To the rear of the downstairs bar is the small brewery you have to walk past malt sacks to get to the Loo's.

The Brewery was funded in 2012 and is a 10 Barrel Plant-all their beers are Vegan friendly. The very welcoming Alison who was running the bar informed us that their best seller is Sand House Blonde and they have brew that every other brew to keep up demand-their next most popular brew is their bitter, Cheswold.

All their beers have a Doncaster theme - Cheswold Motors-car producing company in the early 1900's who moved to aeronautical motors to support the war effort. The Sand house was a famous landmark and vet popular up until the end of World War 2, a Victorian Mansion carved from solid sandstone in a local quarry and lived in by local eccentric Henry senior. It is thought most of it lies below n of the city centre carparks and there is much local speculation about it being found and rebuilt.

Brewery and bar owners Alison and Ian will be around the bar you can’t miss them as their portraits hang above the bar.
There was a great choice of beers on including a couple of guests so we want for a pair of planks which meant we could sample all 6 cask ales - we were also directed to help ourselves to the mini buffet at the side of the bar as nice touch with cheeses, pates crackers and pickles which we assume is their Sunday treat - it was working as the place was pretty full, most folk had a chat with us all 8n all a very convivial place certainly one we would recommend and return to.

A Donny half dozen the Brewery Tap (and remains of the Sunday cheese board)



We decided we had time for one more pub before we had to head back to York, throwing out our options to our Donny Tap friends - the consensus re time, beer quality and distance to station threw up the Little Plough in nearby Laith Gate. 


Heading to the Little Ploug
Little Plough Doncaster is just across from the station. You can’t miss it for the rather stunning signage -Hewitts Grimsby Ales- on white tiles, all very Art Deco and stained windows.
The pubs had two rooms lounge and bar, and a small courtyard We choose the quieter rear lounge which along with many other feature retains its service bell pushes on the raised dado rail
The pubs interior dates from 1944 and is listed in Camra's national top twenty of historic Interiors


Quite an eclectic mix of cask on offer The Plough-but named the Little Plough not sure as only other Plough in the area is some way out of the town.

Hewitt Brothers Brewery had a long history in Grimsby being founded in 1806. the Plough was one of their 320 tied houses. The brewery was taken over by Northern Brewer of Great Britain in 1961 and the brewery was closed in 1968.
Northern Brewer merged with Charrington and then Bass and in turn Mitchell and Butler.
           Original bell service in the loung  
I chose a Wensleydale Demons Eye Which was very good, we were the only drinkers in the lounge the more basic bar looked busier. A couple of reviews suggest stepping into this pub is a little like going back to the 1940s and certainly the rear lounge has that vibe, definitely worth seeking out and is literally 2 minutes from the station - which on return was looking especially proud of itself in the spring later afternoon sunshine 

Doncaster Station 

So we only managed to tick off three of the Donny Dozen but were impressed and we will try and get back and make a day of it in Doncaster. Not sure if we will get back to Goole but all in all a grand day out and say it quietly all our Northern trains on time, clean and tidy and all our connections worked - and all for the bargain price of a tenner for the day. The discount offer will hopefully return again in a month or so and if you can access the Northern network well worth looking out for - I’ll hopefully be writing about another day trip soon.

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