Goole Docks...

After Paul the postman, and Darren the handyman, Helen was the first visitor to the Old Sunday School. We spent a couple of hours at Blacktoft Sands, watching greenshanks, ruffs, avocets and the ever-present marsh harriers. Yesterday we visited the Yorkshire Waterways Museum, situated at the end of a cul de sac in Goole, and took a boat trip around the docks. Ah, the romance of Goole Docks!

It was a desolate scene: quays, cranes, derricks, coal hoists, warehouses, rust… and not a boat in sight. I wasn’t aware that Goole had been a planned town (according to Google, the name ‘Goole’ suggests either an 'open sewer', or an 'outlet to a river’), with town, canal and port declared open on July 20, 1826. Goole has known prosperity, and we were assured, by the guys in the museum, that goods were still going out and coming in, but there’s little doubt that Goole’s days as a busy port are in the past.

Licensed, for a sum that would barely buy a couple of beers and a bag of pork scratchings: The Black Bull, in Otley...