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The Early years, Carlisle
On the 20th April 1925, the Nazi party in Hamburg, Germany, were celebrating the 36th birthday of their leader Adolf Hitler. At number 10, Court Street in Carlisle, Cumberland (later Cumbria), England on this day a male child was born to James Dixon Fell, a boilermaker by trade, and his wife, Jane Agnes (nee Hunter). He was also welcomed as a brother to Margaret Mary and James Ambrose. This is the story of that male child who became know as George Dixon Fell, and his recollections. Hopefully they are all factual, although with the passing of time and consequent dimming of the memory, some dates may be slightly out.
Number 10 was a two bedroom house down a lane in Court Street, accessed via a courtyard which housed a communal washhouse for a number of dwellings. The washhouse was allocated for use by seven of the houses in Court Street on a daily basis and our washday was Monday. The boiler in the washhouse was heated by a coal fire and the yard was used for drying the clothes. If it was wet on the Monday, the clothes had to be dried indoors on a clothes horse as all the other days for drying were allocated for use by the other residents.
There was no electricity to number 10 Court Street, consequently no hot water. We had no bathroom and baths were taken in a tin tub which was set up in the kitchen, with the water heated on the coal fire which was the only means of heating we had. The same water was used by the whole family, consequently bathing was limited to once a week.
As well as bringing up her family, my mother had to cope with the washing, and my father used overalls for work which had to be washed by hand nightly. The coal fire in the lounge come kitchen had an oven on each side , these were used for all the baking.
My mother used to bake twice a week making all her own bread, cakes, scones etc. Gingerbread was the favourite cake which was baked in the same tins as the ordinary bread, the scones were made on a girdle (griddle) which was hung over the fire. Toast was also made by putting slices of bread on a fork and holding it either over or in front of the fire. It always tasted far better than the toast made these days in a proper toaster.
My sister Margaret helped at an early age in bringing up the younger children.
As a catholic family we all attended mass on Sunday mornings, the times of the masses being 8am, 9.30am (known as the family mass) and 11am (known as the lazy man’s mass). We normally attended the 9.30 mass as a family and I remember one Sunday when we were going to mass we passed one of our neighbours, who asked where we were going, and on being told that we were going to church said, “Say a prayer for me”. I replied, “You can come with us if you want.” I think I was about three years old at the time. The mass in those days was ‘said’ in Latin with the exception of the sermon which was in English, consequently I learnt a little of the Latin language without realising it at the time. I can still recite the main parts of the Latin mass. The main advantage of the Latin mass was that you could go anywhere in the world and follow the mass in the same way that you could in your own country.