Tony Cunnane's Early Years 1935-53

After Dad was sent on temporary duty to Gloucestershire in 1946 he was able to come home at weekends only every six weeks or so. This was partly because of his shift working duties and partly because of the expense. The journey from Leyhill Prison to Wakefield was long and arduous. First of all he had to get transport from the prison to the nearest railway station, which was Charfield. Public service buses ran only very intermittently so he tended to rely on hitching a lift in a prison vehicle when one was available. At Charfield he had to take a local stopping train to Gloucester from where he could usually connect with a through train to Leeds.

Sometimes the train stopped at Normanton, which was the junction pre-Beeching for connecting trains to Wakefield Kirkgate. If he had to go through to Leeds there was then the bus ride to Wakefield and the walk from the Bull Ring to Cotton Street. One way or another, the journey took a whole day. Since the return journey took at least that long, and was actually impossible on Sundays, Dad needed at least three days off duty in order to make the journey home worth while.

So we relied on letters and telephone calls to keep in touch. Dad couldn’t telephone us because we did not have a telephone in the house. At least twice a week Mum, sister and I walked the short distance to the public call box adjacent to the main gates of Thornes Park on Denby Dale Road more or less opposite St James’ Church. I still remember the telephone number we had to ring – Falfield 292. We used to make our calls after 7pm because it was cheaper then. First, we had to call the local operator and ask to be put through to Trunks. It sometimes took ages before the operator answered because the cheap evening calls started at 7pm and lots of people were waiting to take advantage of them.

Almost every time we asked the Trunks operator for the Falfield number we had to explain where Falfield was. As soon as the number started to ring Mum had to put the necessary coins into the telephone and press Button A – that started our three minute ration. The number rang somewhere in the Staff living quarters at Leyhill and Dad was always there waiting for our call. Naturally Mum spoke first, to get the latest news and to pass on any domestic matters. Towards the end of our time Kathleen and I each had a brief word with Dad and then we left the telephone box so that Mum could have a few private words with Dad until the operator came on the line to say that our three minutes were up.

Phone calls were very personal but in addition Dad and Mum wrote letters almost every day. Dad’s letters always included a personal page just for Mum’s eyes. Kathleen and I always wrote a few sentences on the end of Mum’s letter. The postal system was extremely efficient. If we posted our letter at the main post office in Market Street, known as the General Post Office or GPO for short, before 6pm we knew it would reach Dad the following morning. The night postal trains must have been faster than the daytime passenger trains!

I remember one occasion, on a very dark night during the war, when a lady was standing by the GPO posting box as we arrived. She asked if we had a torch that we could shine carefully onto her letter because she wanted to affix a stamp to the envelope but, most importantly, make sure it was parallel to the top. 'I don't want to be disrespectful to the King by sticking it on skew-whiff,' she explained. Mum obliged.

Above:
The public phone box that we used to telephone Dad at Leyhill in the 1940s was on Denby Dale Road at the end of this avenue in Wakefield's Clarence Park. This image, from April 2008, is the view looking down the hill towards what used to be the main entrance to the park. During the 1939/45 War a stray German delayed action bomb hit the park gates at the bottom right hand side of this picture. Queen Victoria's statue also spent some time at the bottom of this hill from 1950 to 1985 but the splendid park ornamental gates were never restored to their final glory and they were eventually removed altogether.

Market Street Wakefield in May 2008. During the war the General Post Office (GPO) was accommodated in the low-roofed building. There were stamp machines and letter boxes in the front panel and this was exactly where the lady on that pitch dark, blacked-out night, during the war asked for our assistance to stick her stamp on correctly. What odd things we remember!