What's New at MACE?

Here at MACE we're dedicated to getting more material on-line and seen. Hopefully, our latest uploads can help you disappear down the many rabbit holes of discovery that a wide-ranging archive collection can provide. Putting a few of them together here helps show the scope of what we're proud to preserve and save for the future. Midlands News was a short news bulletin shown by ATV in the region from 1956 until 1969, in fact it was the first local news programme broadcast by any of the ITV franchise holders and we're very proud to look after this collection of original 16mm film inserts. It provides a valuable snapshot of life in the Midlands and it's fascinating to see what made the news on each day. This time around we have a butcher who'd won the pools and decided to give away free meat and a woman who travelled to her wedding in a canal boat. Also on show from ATV Today which eventually took over from Midlands News (after running alongside it for a few years) we have a 1976 visit by John Swallow to a fish and chip shop in Wolverhampton where the price of a bag of chips had reached the then outrageous price of 15 pence. We've also recently scanned the opening episode of one of the longest running regional programmes shown by both ATV and Central Television in the Midlands - the series Farming Today was first seen in October 1972 and lasted in the same format on Sunday mornings (with only a name change in the Central era) until 1985. We also love home movies here at MACE and continue to be amazed at how films that can be 80 plus years old can shine as good as new. So welcome to newly uploaded films from the 1930s and 40s showing an outing by the Birmingham Jewish Boys and Girls Club to Shropshire and VE Day being celebrated on the streets of Fenton in Stoke on Trent.