Tony Cunnane's Early Years

The Corn Exchange terminus was a triangular traffic island on Vicar Lane used only by the West Riding red buses and local Leeds trams in the 1940s. The buses and trams went anti-clockwise around the island. It was a very tight left hand turn and I clearly remember how the tram wheels always screeched loudly as their flanges bit against the tracks. At busy times the central area was congested, thronged with patiently queuing passengers. Instead of using the main bus station about 300 metres away, the red buses of the West Riding Automobile Company probably used the Corn Exchange terminus because the Wakefield trams that preceded them had used it. It was actually a very convenient place because the market and main shopping areas were very close by. The area on Vicar Lane in front of the Leeds Corn Exchange has changed considerably but is still a major stopping point for local Leeds bus services.

Later in the war some of the ancient pre-war red buses were replaced by what were called 'utility' buses. These were rather more powerful than the old ones but were very uncomfortable to ride in because the seats had no upholstery, hence the 'utility' description. Utility was a big word during the war: in addition to utility buses there were utility clothes, utility furniture, in fact anything that was produced to less than the pre-war standard tended to be called utility. The upper floor of the utility buses was very claustrophobic. The roof was several inches lower than the older buses and tall people were unable to sit upright. The upstairs seats were bench seats capable of holding up to five adults at a squeeze. There was only one aisle on the upper deck, on the right hand side of the bus, so whenever passengers on the inside wanted to get off there was a considerable kerfuffle while other passengers moved around trying to make way. Quite often there was a shout down to the conductor, "Hang on, there's more to come!" Worst of all, there were always dense clouds of cigarette smoke on the upper deck (the lower deck was smoke free) as almost all the men and many of the women were smokers. Since smoke rises, most of the upstairs passengers found their heads were permanently in the smoke clouds. The ill effects of breathing someone else's smoke were not known in those days!

After getting off the bus in Wakefield's Bull Ring following a visit to the Grandparents, we always walked back to Cotton Street via Market Street, past the cattle market on the right, across Ings Road and then along Denby Dale Road - passing under another of the Ninety Nine Arches, probably about number 80, on the way. Halfway down Market Street on the right was the General Post Office - always referred to as 'the GPO'. One dark evening, extremely dark because of the total blackout, as we got to the GPO an elderly lady stopped us and asked Dad if he had a torch. He had. She asked if he would carefully shine the light onto a letter she was about to post. "I have to put a stamp on the envelope but I don't want to put the stamp on upside down," she explained. "That would be such bad manners - and so disloyal to the King!" she added.

Shortly after the war, the West Riding Automobile Company started numbering its routes. The Sandal to Leeds route was number 10. For some peculiar reason the Company decided that it would give a different route number for those buses that plied over only part of the route. For example, the number 11 Bus was Wakefield to Outwood Church; number 12 Wakefield to Lofthouse Gate; 13 Wakefield to Robin Hood, and if I remember correctly there was even a number 14 Thwaite Gate. Thwaite Gate was the Leeds City boundary and it was where the Leeds City tram services terminated. Those shortened red bus routes were presumably operated to provide extra services over certain sections to help counter over-crowding. Buses which plied between Rothwell and Leeds via Wood Lane had the route number 18. I cannot remember if there were routes 15, 16 and 17.

For security reasons during the war, in order to thwart the perceived threat of German spies and Fifth Columnists, there were no route indicators outside the bus. For the same reason all signposts and road names had been removed. The post-war route numbers seemed to cause passengers more confusion than help since the indicator boards always showed where the bus was going thus rendering the numbers superfluous.

The modern equivalent of the red bus route from Sandal to Leeds is the Arriva Route 110 and it follows almost exactly the same route but now starts from Kettlethorpe before it reaches Sandal and terminates at the modern Leeds City Central Bus Station rather than the Corn Exchange. The Arriva buses which operate the route are 'talking buses' - an automatic system linked to GPS announces the next stop before the bus gets there and announces it again when the bus stops. Most regular passengers find this extremely irritating. Presumably the drivers also find it irritating because I have noticed recently (in 2008) that the talking system is often switched off.

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Of course for security reasons during the war, in order to thwart the perceived threat of German spies and Fifth Columnists, there were no route indicators outside the bus.

Two views of Leeds Corn Exchange as it is in September 2008. The lower image shows the area that was the turning circle for the red buses that went anti-clockwise around the traingular central area.

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