Tony Cunnane's Early Years 1935-53

My maternal grandfather, James Winter, was born in 1876 in Fairford, Gloucester, a village that was to feature quite a lot in my adult life because of the large RAF flying base that was there for many years. When he grew up, Grandfather (that's him on the left holding me on my 1st birthday - click to pop up a larger version) worked for the Midland Railway which was merged in 1922, along with several other railways, to form the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS). He worked mainly on trains running between Gloucester and Leeds, a route which quickly became known as the ‘Devonian’ route in recognition of the named expresses which ran once a day linking Leeds and other northern cities with the seaside resorts in Devon.

When James Winter had to stay overnight at the Leeds end of the Devonian route he lodged with the Wells family: father John, mother, and their only daughter Edith Eliza. They lived at 38 Westbury Terrace, Stourton. Mr Wells was a railway guard on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway with duties mainly in the Leeds area so it was probably he who arranged for young James to lodge with them from time to time. Perhaps he was even doing a bit of match-making! It was a very convenient arrangement because Westbury Terrace was barely 200 metres from the Midland Railway tracks as they passed through the southern outskirts of Leeds.

Early in the morning James would climb the fence at the end of the terrace, scramble down the steep verge and walk the well-worn path along the side of the tracks towards the Hunslet locomotive sheds. There he used to hitch lifts on the footplate of any light locomotive heading towards one or other of the several Leeds stations. Mr Wells’ daughter, Edith Eliza, and Edward James Winter married at Hunslet Parish Church in 1902 and they set up home three doors along Westbury Terrace at number 32. Edith was just 20 years old when she married. Thereafter, and until his retirement, James worked mainly on the Leeds – Settle – Carlisle route.

In spite of being married in the Parish Church, Edith and James were both Methodists – perhaps the Methodists could not solemnise marriages then. The couple worshipped regularly after their marriage in Stourton Methodist Chapel adjacent to the Queens’ Hotel, just across the main road from Waddington’s factory at Thwaite Gate where Monopoly was made for many years. The former Waddington site is now the main headquarters of the First Direct Bank. The Winters had only two children, Nellie born in December 1903 and Annie, who was to be my mother, born in February 1910. (Left Grandma Winter in 1936 - click to pop up a larger version)

For several years Annie Winter was courted by Herbert Cunnane. He was employed as a bus conductor and driver for Leeds City Transport; Annie worked for EJ Arnold, a well-known printing firm in Hunslet that specialised in educational books and railway timetables – an odd combination. Judging by photographs I have that were taken in the 1930s, Annie was a very beautiful young lady and Herbert a very handsome man. They married in the Stourton Methodist chapel in 1933. Neither ever spoke in my hearing about the problems that undoubtedly occurred because of a Roman Catholic man marrying a Methodist woman. My sister, however, can remember Dad relating how he once had to chase away the local Roman Catholic priest who was trying to remonstrate with Grandma Wilman for forsaking the religion and allowing her son to do the same.

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