Tunnel to the Wreck by Owen Townend
There is a tunnel beneath Birkby Hall Road connecting Norman Park to a place that locals know as ‘The Rec’ but I call ‘The Wreck’. Technically it is an extension of Norman Park, that was the original intention, but one side is considerably more neglected than the other and has been since the Millennium. I must have been about eight when my sister and I spent a sunny afternoon crawling through that tunnel. We leapt off the Norman Park swings onto the wood chip path, turned a sharp left and got down on our hands and knees. The stone structure was solid enough but I didn’t want to linger and admire it. Even so I could hear my sister close behind, quietly encouraging me to slow down and run my hands across the smooth curved texture. Ahead of us, the circle of hazy light was steadily widening, flecks of barely visible grass boosting my resolve. My palms slapped cold stone faster, hoisting me the final couple of fee...