Tom Pudding, Goole: The popular cosy micropub set inside an old newsagents

The very popular micropub was converted from a newsagents shop and has developed a loyal customer base.

You can see why it’s so popular as soon as you walk in.

There are plenty of good local ales and ciders (almost all from Yorkshire), excellent scotch eggs and pork pies (from a butcher up the road), a choice of pork scratchings (often in pubs there are scratchings but rarely is there a choice), a ridiculous gin selection (around 40) and a decent array of bottled beers and lagers.

There is a cosy, intimate atmosphere, engendered mainly by the tight seating plan but there are also live music nights (usually on a Thursday) and the pub is bang in prime position for the train station and the football ground, so there are plenty of opportunities to pop in even when seats are few.

During my visit, the clientele are exclusively older men but I assume there are other demographics that attend on occasion.

Tom Pudding, by the way, wasn’t (or isn’t) a person but the name given to the tub boats used on the Aire and Calder navigation to transport coal from open cast collieries in South Yorkshire to the port of Goole.

They looked like a row of floating Yorkshire puddings (or black puddings, depending on your perspective) and were originally constructed by a man called Tom.

Should this sort of stuff interest you, the walls of the pub are lined with photos and drawings of various boats associated with the nearby waterways.

Welcome 4/5

Atmosphere 4/5

Drinks choice 5/5

Prices 4/5

20 Pasture Road, Goole, DN14 6EZ, www.tompuddinggoole.co.uk