JACK CADE 1450

Childhood

Early in my life I attended St Johns CE Primary School for boys, in Bayham Road, Sevenoaks, Kent. One teacher, who I can’t remember her name (The school never responded to my request for her name when I asked), got me excited when she told me of a historic battle nearby. I was surprised as the lady had just moved from either Bermuda or the Bahamas and yet she knew about something about local history. She was totally responsible for setting the historic seed within me.

Adulthood

Years passed, I had got married and moved to Heathfield in East Sussex. Whilst in my day job, as a telecoms engineer, I spotted a monument in the village of Cade Street near to Heathfield. I got out of the van and read the inscription to find it was dedicated to Jack Cade, the leader in the battle my primary school teacher talked to us about.

University

More years passed, and the all too common, relationship breakup and divorce, I met a wonderful supportive woman who became my wife. Whilst I was lamenting the missed opportunities of going to university she stopped me and said, “Well why don’t you go with the Open University?” So for the next 6 years I studied for a History BA Honours degree, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I would have gone on to do a MA degree, but the government had put the prices up exponentially, I could do without the massive debt that entailed.

Today

So what to do with my Honours degree? It certainly wouldn’t help me in job and being in my late 40’s, I decided that I might write an historical novel about Jack Cade. This led me to investigate the uprising further and collect a vast array of books old, new, and a few reprints of old. I must say that actually sitting down to develop the historic characters in a book is not easy, so this website is partly to aid me in this process.