The Media Archive for Central England is the public screen archive for the East and West Midlands. An independent charity and company based at the University of Lincoln, MACE acquires, catalogues, preserves and makes widely available moving image materials that inform our understanding of the diverse cultures and histories of communities between the Lincolnshire coast and the Welsh border.
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Forties Child
For Tom Wakefield the pit village of Chadsmoor provided more than a birthplace, it was inspiration amongst the slag heaps.
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Overview
With its cramped rows of houses contrasting with the green spaces of the nearby Cannock Chase, the pit village of Chadsmoor was transformed into a place of wonder in the eyes of the school boy Tom Wakefield during the Second World War. Forty years later, and now a successful novelist, he reflects on those fading memories of childhood places and faces with reporter Peter Green; memories that may actually outlive the coal mines of Cannock themselves.
Forties' Child, Tom Wakefield's autobiography of growing up in Chadsmoor was published in 1980. Wakefield worked as a teacher before taking up writing in the 1970s producing a string of highly regarded books often set in the North Midlands. He died in 1996.
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