retiredmartin

March 2025. Saltmarshe. Goole.

This year’s Good Beer Guide will take you to new entries in lesser visited Britain. Costessey, Quoyloo, Merthyr Tydfil…

And Greater Goole.

Not in Goole itself, though a biker we met the next day in Howden told us Brew York were opening up in the town market soon.

My tick is four minutes away, over Goole Bridge. I’d have walked it, but ChatGPT told me not to.

ChatGPT also told me Saltmarshe was a request stop, so I explained my mission to the guard at Goole in unnecessary detail, lest I ended up somewhere really scary, like Hull.

Disappointingly, the train was always stopping in the hamlet of Saltmarshe (pop. 82), one of those quaint rail halts that serve 3 people a day.

Sorry, 3.232 people a day.

No-one joined, no-one else left, there was not a sound leaving the refurbished station for civilisation.

So, why does Saltmarshe get a station with seventeen trains calling a day to whisk you to Gilberdyke and Goole ?

Well, possibly because of the eponymous country house a mile south,

the wedding destination of choice for Goole’s uber-rich.

Looks great, but I shan’t be taking Mrs RM on a couple’s retreat there next week;

The station serves the village of Laxton, barely bigger with 314 souls, though it does have yoga with Jools.

Admit it, you’d never heard of Hatha and Yin.

What else can Laxton thrill us with ?

A post box with rare Alan Titchmarsh 3rd editions,

some impressive ivy,

a closed church,

and a parish council agenda with a big blue button at the bottom,

this being true blue Tory territory.

Oh, and a rather gorgeous pub, which we’ll come to shortly.