Chelmsford is the county town of Essex.
Chelmsford is home to the second smallest cathedral in England. It was built in the 15th and 16th centuries when it was the parish church in the medieval town.
During World War II Chelmsford was a centre of light engineering war production and was attacked on several occasions. The worst was on Tuesday December 19th 1944 when thirty-nine people lost their lives and a further one hundred and thirty eight were hurt, forty-seven of whom were seriously injured.
Since the 1980’s Chelmsford’s manufacturing and defence related industries have declined with several factories having to close. Luckily because of the towns location being close to London it has become an important administration and distribution centre.
Originally Chelmsford was an agricultural and market town. Then came the foundries and engineering. One such factory known as Christy Norris Ltd was opened in 1858 and closed many years later in 1985. The company still operate in Ipswich.
Now the town has a range of national and international companies including M & G Group and e2v Technologies. Many businesses now occupy premises on the Chelmsford Business Park.
In 1898 Guglielmo Marconi opened the world’s first ‘wireless’ factory and employed about fifty workers. In June 1912 the company moved to new premises in New Street where the factory can still be seen today.
On June 15th 1920 the factory was where the first publicised sound broadcast in the UK was made.
The New Street site is due for demolition although the Grade II listed front façade will remain. This will bring and end to over one hundred years of Marconi in Chelmsford.
Cromptons engineering was the UK’s first electrical engineering works. It was established by Colonel Compton who was a leading authority of electrical engineering and a pioneer of electric street lighting. Chelmsford was one of the first towns to receive electric street lighting but the council had it removed as gas was cheaper and the council owned the gas company.
The UK’s first ball bearing company was also established in New Street, The Hoffman Manufacturing Company. The Company grew quickly as they boasted accuracy better than l/10,000 of an inch for all their products. The factory once employed thousands and closed in 1980.
The Britvic drink company are also in Chelmsford and have been since 1948.
The town is easily accessed as it lies on the A12 from London and is only a twenty-five minutes drive from Stanstead airport.
The Army and Navy roundabout is notorious for its traffic queues that can be up to a mile long. The flyover at the junction is unusual as the traffic goes one way into the town until 2.30pm each day and one way out of town after 2.30pm.
Chelmsford has one railway station with trains to Liverpool Street. Around 10,000 commuters travel to London daily making this the busiest through railway station in England.
The station is raised on a viaduct, so the platforms are above street level but stairs and a lift to each platform are provided.
Chelmsford has two shopping centres, High Chelmer and The Meadows plus two retail parks. High Chelmer is under redevelopment; the interior is being refurbished with a Starbucks as a centrepiece and is due to be completed very soon.
The High Street is full of chain stores and smaller independent shops including Madhouse, Bucciali, Base, Hoax, Hugo Boss, Marie Horn Boutique, Monsoon, Blue Lawn, The Baby Room and Tuc Taks.
Several new developments are being built containing apartments. A new neighbourhood centre is planned as is an urban village containing 3,500 homes.
Property for rent is readily available costing approximately £550-£675pcm for a l bed flat, £600 - £825 for a 2 bed flat and £725 - £950 for a 3 bed house.
Chelmsford has a great nightlife with clubs, pubs, bars and restaurants; because the town has good transport links it attracts many from the surrounding villages.
One of the places of interest in Chelmsford is the eighteen arch Victorian railway viaduct built I 1842.
The Cathedral is behind the Shire Hall, this hall is the oldest building in the town and was built as a courthouse and remains so to this day.
The RHS Gardens are another place of interest worth visiting as are Admirals and Central Parks.
Chelmsford has two rivers and up to the 1960’s both often flooded the area. Flood prevention schemes in the 1960’s have more or less prevented the flooding though there are still flood plains that do regularly flood.
The town has sports teams for hockey, cricket, football and ice hockey.
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