An Oral History Interview ‘memories of the Canning Town Old Library’ with Sharon Fell

Meet Sharon Fell 

A family connection – a Father’s love

Sharon came from a family of readers – “They all avidly read newspapers. But my Dad was the one who was the avid reader of books. Despite working long hours in manual labour he would always tell me stories”. Having been taken to the library from an early age, Sharon became an avid reader herself.

Rebellion and defying expectation

Sharon in her own words was not the “ideal” pupil at secondary school and her teachers predicted poor grades. However, Sharon surprised everyone by doing well in her exams and went on to complete her A levels at East Ham Technical College and in particular History which she loved.

Becoming an inspiring Teacher – “because I liked working with children”

Divided between studying Law or Teaching, Sharon made the decision to become a teacher as she wanted to work with children and in particular teach in Newham.

Finding it difficult to find work following graduation because of the economic downturn in the 1980s; by chance a Newham school offered her a Teaching position. Having had most of her teacher training in well funded Inner London Schools (ILEA), she discovered how poorly funded the outer London School system was while working in Newham.

Making the best of the situation – Discovering the “Canning Town old Library” 

However, from this negative first impression she discovered the old Canning Town Library bulk loan system for schools and she set about making sure the children in her school had access to books on the topics taught each term.

“I found out that Newham had this, this fantastic thing going, where you could, it was a Library loan system. So, you could come to Canning Town library and out on that ground floor, it was just rows and rows of books, and you could take out a loan for the topic that you were doing that term”.

“Newham did fantastically well, really, but their budget could never, ever compete with what was going on in ILEA”.

The “Canning Town Old Library” – First impressions

As a book lover, she personally made sure she went to the old Canning Town Library before the start of each new term to select books for her classes and spent her own time doing so after school hours or during holidays. She remembers being overwhelmed by the size and space of the library with so many bookshelves full of books on every topic.

Sharon Fell in her own words

What the “Canning Town Old Library” and the building means to me 

“Well, it was one of the lovely old buildings. I mean our old libraries, you know? I mean they were gifted to us, and they are something to be revered”

Books bringing joy and stability in an unstable home

We’ve got children who are being moved every few months, you know, not in permanent homes. They don’t have their own books; they haven’t got that joy. They haven’t got huge amounts of toys, because these things have all got to be shifted every time you move. So, to be able to borrow books they can read at home and take the books back, you know it’s a portable thing. Yeah, I think it’s very important. 

Memorable Events

The importance of Story Time

“And I always made sure that nothing stopped story time”

I was in the old what was Marks and Spencer’s in East Ham, and I was getting some food and that this is going back a few years as well. And this voice said, “Oh, Hello, Miss. Fell”, and I turned around and I didn’t know this child at all. And that made me quite sad, because I like to be able to call people by name. I think that’s very important. And his mum said, “no, no”. She said, “don’t worry, you never taught him. He was in the class next door to you”. And she said, “you used to take him for story”, and he got into reading his books. You know he developed a love of books because he loved the stories and he wanted to read the books that you were reading to him to himself”

A librarian, a little book club and a surprise

Sharon started a book club so the children could take books home. Some of the books were gifted, and the money from the book club was used to buy more books.

“And I remember one lady in particular, because she said to me, “I think you teach my nephew”. And I said, “really?. And it turned out I did, because she said, “Yeah, you’re, you’re the teacher. He brings all these books home, and said, can you mend these books for my teacher?” 

“The kids used to take the books home. And of course, the well-loved, ones used to fall to pieces. And so, he was taking them home to his Auntie, knowing that she was a librarian who fixed books”. And he never said a word to me about it. It was, it was only her and that’s when the cat came out of the bag.

“I know that voice”

“And I remember I was working in a school – Ellen Wilkinson, and this, I was in the staff room, and I was chatting to someone, and a voice suddenly said, “I know that voice”, and it was one of my ex-pupils. And she said, “You were the teacher that read to us”. 

Books are important: “You know, you can’t just say to people go away and write a story, if they’ve never heard any stories, or if they’ve never had any experience of books?”

“I was doing a role play project in school, and it was based on a book by Jill Murphy, when baby bear goes to the moon. And one of the children in the class was taking his free writing SAT’s test and his teacher showed me his paper about baby bear going to the seaside. He actually had lifted the story and he had very cleverly adapted it to fit to what he had to write for his SATs.  So, he’d listen to a story about a baby elephant that didn’t listen to its mum, and he then wrote about a baby dolphin that didn’t, that didn’t listen to his mum, so he, this was where he’d gained experience that if he hadn’t done that story, he might not have been able to have written the story that he did”.

The Future of libraries

“Well, I don’t know. I fear for them, because we’ve already cut back so much on the books that we have, and a lot of them are electronic books. But it’s a shame that libraries are being used as the communal centres, not because they’re being used as communal centres, but because we’re using, losing a lot of our community space, and they’re being expected to take the brunt of everything, which I think’s too much for them”.

Who uses libraries now

“When I go to the library, it’s children I see in the library, and even if you go early evening with their parents, it’s children getting books more so than adults. You know, I think it is the children that still find joy from books, and I’m glad to see that schools are still using the facility”. 

The importance of the Canning Town Old Library

“Well, just that, the libraries in Newham have given me so many hours of pleasure, you know, and I’d be very sad to see them go and what, what Canning Town library did for the children that I taught in the 80s and the 90s. You know, we couldn’t, individual schools, couldn’t have replaced that”.

Currently

Sharon still uses libraries, is a passionate local historian and a member of the University of the Third Age.