Economy and shopping

Chelmsford is largely a commercial town which employs around 80,000 people. There are two medium sized shopping centres, High Chelmer and The Meadows. Chelmsford has two retail parks, Riverside and Chelmer Village. High Chelmer Shopping Centre is currently under redevelopment, the refurbished interior and the new Starbucks centrepiece should be finished shortly.

The High Street is full of independent and chain stores. As well as the leading High Street names, there is also a wide variety of specialist retailers, especially in Baddow Road and Moulsham Street which are located at the end of the pedestrianised High Street.

Industry past and present

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 including Fell Christy at his Factory (In later years known as Christy Norris Ltd) on the corner of Kings Road and Broomfield Road opened 1858, closed 1985, Coleman and Moreton, Thomas Clarkson (Steam Omnibus manufacturer and Founder of the Eastern National Bus Company) and Eddington and Stevenson (makers of traction engines). The Company Christy Norris still survives, trading as Christy Turner Ltd based in Ipswich. A nearby road to the old Factory was named "Fell Christy" in his honour.

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 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.

Several years ago Chelmsford was labelled a mere clone town; however new developments are proving the statement wrong, with new business opportunities around the town. Sizeable businesses are now based in the Chelmsford Business Park at Boreham housing companies such as the Anderson Group. The town also has a low unemployment rate and has one of the most educated workforces in the country.

The Marconi Company

In 1898, Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937) the "father of radio", opened the world's first "wireless" factory under the name The Marconi Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company in Hall Street employing around 50 people. The company was later called the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company Ltd. 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. Marconi soon outgrew its Hall Street premises and in June 1912 the company moved to a brand new purpose built 70,000 square foot factory in New Street that still stands today. On June 15, 1920 the factory was the location of the first official publicised sound broadcast in the United Kingdom, featuring Dame Nellie Melba using two 450 feet radio broadcasting masts.

In 1922 the world's first regular wireless broadcasts for entertainment began from the Marconi laboratories at Writtle near Chelmsford — Call sign '2MT' in what was little more than a wooden hut.

In 1999 Marconi's defence division, including the Chelmsford facilities, were purchased by British Aerospace to form BAE Systems. Two sites remain under BAE control; the Great Baddow site which is now BAE's Advanced Technology Centre and its Integrated Systems Technologies business at Glebe Road.

The military and secure communications division of was merged into Selex Communications, which is based at the New Street factory and is still operational. However the New street factory's future is very much in doubt with redevelopment of the whole site is planned to start during 2008. Although the Grade II listed front façade and a few other minor buildings will remain, most of the site will be demolished, including the 1930s art deco Marconi House. Its demise will bring to an end more than 100 years of Marconi in Chelmsford.

Crompton's

Chelmsford became home to the United Kingdom's first electrical engineering works established by Colonel Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton (1845–1940). Colonel R. E. Crompton as he was better known was a leading authority of electrical engineering and was a pioneer of electric street lighting and electric traction motors within the U.K. Crompton installed electric street lights around the town centre 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 and the Council owned the gas works. Crompton supplied the traction motors for the first electric trains on Southend Pier. The company also manufactured electrical switchgear, alternators and generators for many power stations in the U.K. and worldwide.

Crompton set up his original factory known as the 'Arc Works' in Queen Street in 1878. After a fire there in 1885 he built a huge new electrical engineering factory also called the 'Arc Works' in Writtle Road. The Firm was called Crompton and Co. and in 1927 became Crompton Parkinson after Colonel Crompton formed a business partnership with fellow British electrical engineer Frank Parkinson. During World War II the factory was frequently targeted by the Luftwaffe. In 1969 Crompton Parkinson Ltd was downsized and operations moved elsewhere after a takeover by Hawker Siddeley and the site was taken over by the Marconi Company and became the base for the newly formed Marconi Radar Systems Ltd

The factory closed in the 1990s and apart from the frontage on Writtle Road was demolished. A housing development called 'The Village' now occupies the site with road names such as Rookes Cresent, Evelyn Place, Crompton Street and Parkinson Drive as tributes to the former occupier.

Hoffmann Ball Bearings

The United Kingdom's first ball bearing factory was established at New Street in Chelmsford in 1898 by cousins Geoffrey and Charles Barrett and bankrolled by American ball bearing machine manufacturer Ernst Hoffmann to which the Company took its name. The Hoffmann Manufacturing Company soon 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. For many years it was Chelmsford's main employer with more employees than Marconi's. The firm became R.H.P. in 1969 (Ransome Hoffmann and Pollard). The factory that once employed thousands was wound down then closed and demolished in the 1980s and the company relocated to Newark on Trent where it still exists. The Rivermead Campus of the Anglia Ruskin University now occupies the site of the old factory at the junction of New Street and Rectory Lane.

Britvic Soft Drinks

Chelmsford is 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. The company changed its name to Britvic in 1971 after its successful brand, which was launched in 1949.

Britvic has a large factory on Widford Industrial Estate with its head office located in Broomfield Road.

 

Dieser Artikel basiert auf dem Artikel Chelmsford aus der freien Enzyklopädie Wiklpedia und steht unter der GNU-Lizenz für freie Dokumentation. In der Wikipedia ist eine Liste der Autoren verfügbar.