Chelmsford is the county town of Essex, England. It lies 31 miles (50 km) northeast of London, approximately halfway between there and Colchester. It is almost exactly in the centre of the county and it has been the county town of Essex since the early 13th century. It is also the seat of the Borough of Chelmsford, which covers a wider area than the town, including the new (ca. 1970s) settlement of South Woodham Ferrers on the banks of the River Crouch. The Borough Council celebrated its centenary in 1988 (it had been incorporated as a municipal borough in 1888 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1882), and the town its 800th anniversary in 1999.

Chelmsford is home to the Diocese of Chelmsford, and Chelmsford Cathedral is the second smallest cathedral in England (after Derby Cathedral)[1], built in the 15th and early 16th centuries when it was the parish church of the prosperous medieval town. The Diocese (established in 1914) covers all of Essex and much of East London. John Dee — noted Elizabethan philosopher and scientist, and also responsible for the English translation of Euclid — was educated at the Chantry School (later re-founded as the Grammar School) in the sixteenth century. Chelmsford is also home to part of the Anglia Ruskin University and to the grammar schools of Chelmsford County High School and King Edward VI Grammar School founded in 1551 by charter of King Edward VI on the site on an earlier educational foundation (although evidence suggests it could have been around in as early as 1292).

1 Population
2 Transport
3 Industry
4 Economy
5 Chelmer redevelopment
6 Places of interest
7 History
8 Geology
9 Twin towns
10 People born in Chelmsford
11 Nearby places
12 See also
13 References
14 External links

[edit] Population

The total population of the area covered by the Borough council is 157,748 (ONS 2004 estimate). Approximately 60,000 live in the town itself, and over 42,400 in the surrounding suburban and semi-rural parishes. Around 16,600 live in South Woodham Ferrers. The remainder of the population live in the surrounding rural areas, including the villages of Galleywood, Bicknacre, East, West and South Hanningfield, Boreham, Ford End, Pleshey, Highwood, Good and High Easter, Chignal St James, Chignal Smealy, Howe Green, Roxwell, Great and Little Leighs, Broomfield, Great and Little Waltham, Great and Little Baddow, Danbury, Sandon, Rettendon, Runwell, Margaretting, Stock and Writtle. (Source: population derived from 2001 census).

[edit] Transport

It is served by Chelmsford railway station. About 10,000 commuters travel to London daily by rail, making Chelmsford the busiest through railway station in England (the busiest overall being Clapham Junction).

The A12 road from London, originally built by the Romans to connect London and Colchester, used to pass through the town, but is now diverted around the east. The £34.8m nine-mile bypass opened in November 1986. The A414 is the main east-west route through the Borough, and the A130 and A131 run approximately north-south. The Army & Navy roundabout is notorious for its traffic hold-ups, even though the north-south road at this point is no longer the A12. The junction is unusual for its flyover, where traffic goes one way into town (westerly) until 2.30pm each day and one way (easterly) out of town after 2.30pm. A two-way flyover has been mooted but is very unlikely to happen as it would cost over £20 million.

Chelmsford is around 25 minutes' drive from London Stansted Airport (via A130/A120), and London Heathrow, London Gatwick, London City, Luton and Southend airports are all within reach.

There is a Park & Ride at Sandon, just off the A12 at Junction 18. It runs from 7am to 7pm, Monday to Saturday with 5 bus stops around the town (one near High Chelmer for shopping) and charges £1.50 per adult & free for OAP's or people under the age of 14. It currently has a capacity of 900 cars(from Dec 2006) but future extensions will allow for 1,200 cars.

There are also plans to build a new railway station between the suburbs of Springfield and Boreham.

One famous Chelmsford resident was Hayden Reed. Hayden was the only person to have been ejected from the town since the old days of deportation and coincidently is now living in Australia!

[edit] Industry

Originally an agricultural and market town, Chelmsford has been an important centre for industry since the 19th century. Following the opening of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation in 1797, cheaper transportation and raw materials made milling and malting the main industries until the 1850s, when increasing prosperity created a local market for agricultural machinery.

Foundries and engineering works followed, opened notably by Fell Christy (1858), Coleman and Moreton, and Eddington and Steevenson (makers of traction engines).

Chelmsford became home to the United Kingdom's first electrical engineering works (established by Colonel R E B Crompton in 1878). Crompton was a pioneer of electric street lighting, and installed electric street lights to celebrate the incorporation of the Borough of Chelmsford in 1888. Although this made Chelmsford one of the earliest towns to receive electric street lighting, the Council later decided to have it removed — because gas was cheaper!

The United Kingdom's first ball bearing factory was established in 1898. The Hoffmann Manufacturing Company achieved worldwide fame for their precision-made bearings — boasting an accuracy better than 1/10,000 of an inch (2.5 micrometres) for all their products. Hoffmann bearings were later used in the first transatlantic flights.

In 1898, Guglielmo Marconi, the "father of radio" opened the world's first "wireless" factory in Hall Street, employing around 50 people. For this reason Chelmsford is credited as the "birthplace of radio", and this phrase can be seen on administrative signs on major roads entering the town. In 1920 the factory was also the location of the first officially publicised sound broadcasts in the United Kingdom, one of them featuring Dame Nellie Melba. In 1922 the world's first regular wireless broadcasts for entertainment began from the Marconi Research Centre at Writtle near Chelmsford - station '2LO'.

Chelmsford is also the home of Britvic soft drinks, which began life as the British Vitamin Company in 1948. However, the origins of the company can be traced back to a chemist's in the town's Tindal Street, where flavoured waters were on sale as early as the mid-19th century.

As well as the headquarters of Essex County and Chelmsford Borough Councils, the modern town is home to a range of national and international companies including M&G Group, e2v Technologies, BAE Systems Integrated System Technologies (Insyte) and EBM Papst (UK) Ltd. The continuing importance of Chelmsford as an employment centre is demonstrated by the fact that the number of "in" commuters (mostly from other parts of Essex) almost exactly balances the number of workers commuting into London.

Chelmsford is a significant town centre retail location. As well as the leading High Street names, there is also a wide variety of specialist retailers, especially in Baddow Road and Moulsham Street, just off the pedestrianised High Street.

Founded as the "Chelmsford Chronicle" in 1764, the weekly "Essex Chronicle" newspaper is said to be the longest in continuous publication in the country. Until the closure of the printing plant in 2002, the paper was also printed in the town. It is now printed on other presses owned by the Northcliffe Group which now owns the paper.

[edit] Economy

Chelmsford is largely a commercial town which employs around 80,000 people. There are two medium sized shopping centres — High Chelmer and The Meadows and a large High Street full of independent and chain stores. However, there are large employers in the surrounding industrial districts such as Dukes Park where thousands are employed at the Britvic distribution centre. The Central Business District is slowly becoming the financial hub of Essex as many new office buildings are being built. Plans for a major flagship store on the gasworks site near the river Chelmer are being considered to try and push Chelmsford into City Status. Plans to knock down the High Chelmer multi-storey for another flagship store & the extention of High Chelmer are also on the way.

[edit] Chelmer redevelopment

Chelmsford's location on two large rivers, the River Chelmer and Can, means there are still traces of its industrial past. Brownfield and derelict sites are being redeveloped. A major development in the West End of Chelmsford just off Duke Street called "54 Parkway" which will contain shops, apartments and a health club. Another scheme near Central Park is also being constructed. This will be a mixed zone site with residential and commercial properties being built, centred around a riverside plaza. Another site near the large suburb of Springfield is in its planning stages. It will be a new neighbourhood which is supposed to be an urban village containing 3,500 homes. A new Northern Relief Road would be built.

[edit] Places of interest

Places of interest within the Borough include Writtle, where Robert the Bruce is said to have married his second wife Elizabeth de Burgh in 1302. The village also has English Royal connections, with King John building a hunting lodge there in 1211. Much of the site now lies within the grounds of Writtle College, the internationally famous centre for horticulture and agriculture.

A few miles away is the attractive village of Pleshey, where stand the ruins of a once important castle mentioned in William Shakespeare's play Richard II. The entire circuit of the castle walls can still be traced in the village streets.

Hylands House and Park just to the west of the town is a former country house and parkland saved from dereliction and purchased by the local council in 1966 after the death of the last private owner. Much damaged by fire and vandalism by the time of the sale, the house has now been completely restored by Chelmsford Borough Council. The house dates originally from 1730, and the park (currently 574 acres or 232 ha) was landscaped by Humphry Repton. It is open to the public and used for a wide range of community events. It is also available for weddings and other private hires including conferences etc. The park has in recent years been the site of popular annual music festivals, such as the V Festival and the Chelmsford Spectacular. It has been chosen as the site for the 21st World Scout Jamboree in 2007 and has already hosted Eurojam in the summer of 2005. Hylands House also doubled as the U.S. White House in the 2004 film Chasing Liberty.

Chelmsford prison also has a claim to fame as the inside scenes of the film version of the TV show Porridge were filmed there. Filming was allowed in the prison while it was being refurbished after a fire. Henry VIII's former Palace of Beaulieu is also nearby, now occupied by the New Hall School.

Other places to visit include the RHS Garden, Hyde Hall at Rettendon, and there are numerous open spaces both in the town and elsewhere in the Borough.

[edit] History

In 1199 the Bishop of London was granted a Royal Charter for the town to hold a market, marking the origin of the modern town. An under-cover market, operating Tuesday to Saturday, is still an important part of the town centre over 800 years later. The town's name derives from 'Ceolmaer's ford', which was close to the site of the present bridge.

Before 1199, there were settlements nearby from ancient times. A Neolithic and a late Bronze Age settlement have been found in the Springfield suburb, and the town was occupied by the Romans. A Roman fort was built in 60 AD, and a civilian town grew up around it. The town was given the name of Caesaromgus (the market place of Caesar), although the reason for it being given the great honour of bearing the imperial prefix are now unclear — possibly as a failed 'planned town' provincial capital to replace Londinium or Camulodunum. The remains of a mansio, a combination post office, civic centre and hotel, lie beneath the streets of modern Moulsham, and the ruins of an octagonal temple are located beneath the Odeon roundabout.

An important Anglo-Saxon burial was discovered at Broomfield, to the north of Chelmsford, and the finds are now in the British Museum.

The town became the seat of the local assize during the early 13th century (though assizes were also held at Brentwood) and by 1218 was recognised as the county town of Essex, a position it has retained to the present day.

Chelmsford was significantly involved in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, and Richard II moved on to the town after quelling the rebellion in London. Despite remaining a town, the area was technically known as the Capital city of England for a brief period during this time. Many of the ringleaders were executed on the gallows at what is now Primrose Hill.

In the 17th century many of the victims of Matthew Hopkins (the self-styled "Witchfinder General") spent their last days imprisoned in Chelmsford, before being tried at the Assize and hanged for witchcraft.

During World War II Chelmsford, as an important centre of light engineering war production, was attacked from the air on several occasions, both by aircraft of the Luftwaffe and by missile. The worst single loss of life took place on Tuesday December 19, 1944, when the 367th V2 to hit England fell on a residential area near the Hoffmans' ball bearing factory and not far from the Marconi electronics factory which may also have been the target. Thirty-nine people were killed and 138 injured, 47 of them seriously, while several dwellings were destroyed and hundreds more damaged. A monument to the dead — recently restored — is in the cemetery in Writtle Road.

Since the war, Chelmsford has suffered from a decline in its manufacturing and defence-related industries — especially Marconi. However, the town's location — close to London and at the centre of Essex — has helped it grow in importance as an administrative and distribution centre.

On January 6, 2005, Chelmsford was granted Fairtrade Town status.

[edit] Geology

From over 600,000 years ago, during the Pleistocene ice age, until the Anglian glaciation around 475,000 years ago, the early River Thames flowed through the area where Chelmsford now stands, from Harlow to Colchester, before crossing what is now the North Sea to become a tributary of the Rhine. Consequently gravel deposits are frequently found in the area, and current and former gravel pits are relatively common.

[edit] Twin towns

Chelmsford's twin towns include:

Image:Flag of France.svg — Annonay (France)
Image:Flag of Germany.svg — Backnang (Germany)

[edit] People born in Chelmsford

Najma Akhtar (b. 1962), jazz singer
Sarah Cracknell (b. 1967), singer, Saint Etienne
Hazell Dean (b. 1956), singer
Liam Chilvers, footballer
Joe Bracken (b. 1991), Drummer, Tokyo
James Gibson (b.1980), breaststroke swimmer
Philemon Holland (b. 1552)
Andy Jenkinson, aka "Ceephax Acid Crew"
Tom Jenkinson, aka "Squarepusher"
Rob Lynn, "Large Nose"
Harry Judd (b. 1985), drummer, McFly
George Clift King (b. 1848), politician
Anne Knight (b. 1786)
Penny Lancaster, model, engaged to singer Rod Stewart, mother of his son Alastair Wallace
Christopher Mullin, politician
Malcolm O'Kelly (b. 1974), Irish international rugby player
Grayson Perry (b. 1960), artist
Nigel Spink (b. 1958) Chelmsford City/Aston Villa/England Goalkeeper
Laura H Williams, novelist
Francesca Wooltorton (b. 1986)
Oli Morris (b. 1986), music producer

[edit] Nearby places

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Foreman, Stephen: "Hylands — the story of an Essex country house and its owners" (Ian Henry Publications, 1999)
Lee, Janet Olivia: "Chelmsford — Birthplace of Radio" (Chelmsford Borough Council, 2001)
Lowen, Ceri: "Hylands House — a brief history and guide" (Chelmsford Borough Council, 2005)
Wander, Tim: "2MT Writtle — The birth of British Broadcasting" (Capella Publications, 1988)
Weller-Lewis, Hugh: "Chelmsford Borough Guide" (Macmillan, 1995)
Wickenden, Nick: "A Celebration of Chelmsford" (Chelmsford Borough Council, 1999)

[edit] External links

view • talk • edit</span> The towns and villages of Chelmsford borough, Essex in the East of England:\|\|Image:Flag of Essex.svg
Boreham • Broad's Green • Butt's Green • Chalk End • Chapel Row • Chatham Green • Chelmsford • Chignall Smealy • Chignall St James • Cooksmill Green • Danbury • Downham • East Hanningfield • Fanner's Green • Ford End • Galleywood • Galleyend • Good Easter • Great Baddow • Great Leighs • Great Oxney Green • Great Waltham • Highwood • Howe Green • Howe Street • Little Baddow • Little Leighs • Littley Green • Little Waltham • Margaretting • Margaretting Tye • Mashury • Newney Green • North End • Pepper's Green • Pleshey • Ramsden Heath • Rettendon • Rettendon Place • Roxwell • Runwell • Sandon • South Hanningfield • South Woodham Ferrers • Stock • Tye Green • West Hanningfield • Writtle • Woodham Ferrers
The town of Chelmsford List of places in Essex

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