Tony Cunnane's Early Years 1935-53

Every day going to and from Christ Church school I had to pass under bridge number 58 of the so-called 99 Arches, the spectacular line of high railway bridges which carried the LNER tracks (now the Leeds Spur of the East Coast Main Line) from Sandal right into the heart of Wakefield. According to the experts there have never been exactly 99 arches. Some people say there are 93, others say there are as many as 114; the exact count apparently depends on which arch is considered to be the last in the line at the Wakefield end.

On the left, in the shadow of bridge 58 was, and still is, the Admiral Duncan public house. I often paused to peer through the grimy pub windows trying to discern what was going on inside. I could read the signs, colourfully engraved on the windows making them look rather like the stained glass I’d seen in our church, but I couldn’t imagine why that establishment needed a ‘tap room’ and a ‘smoke room’ and my parents, both disapproving of alcohol, wouldn’t tell me.