Marconi Radio Factory - Chelmsford - March 2011

[nelly]

The Marconi Radio Factory

Visited with Skeleton Key, Priority 7 and Tstranger1066. This was the 2nd stop on our day trip to Chelmsford.

The place looks absolutely fantastic, full of bits and bobs, but unfortunately after only 20 minutes we got nabbed by 4 really amicable members of Essex Plod and asked to leave the premises, so it's on the cards for a revisit

The History

Marconi's New Street factory was built in 1912 next to the Great Eastern Railway. A railway siding ran across New Street into the factory yard and brought materials in one end of the works and took finished radio equipment out of the other.

At the South end of the building two huge aerial masts once stood, the 450ft (137m) high "Marconi Poles" formed Chelmsfords most prominent landmark.



During the Second World War the Marconi Company employed more than 6,000 people in Chelmsford. Producing vital military communications equipment, the New St factory became a target for bombing and was hit in May 1941 with a loss of 17 lives.

In 1920, two years before the BBC was established, the New Street factory made history as the site of the first official British sound broadcasts including the famous concert by Dame Nellie Melba which was heard all over the world.















The workers entrance











I learned everything I know about attenuation of radio signals and the impact and mitigation of ionospheric anomalies from this book, not to mention two-dimensional ionospheric tomography over low-latitude regions












The Gang


Thanks for looking

[BB]

Great report!!

[simonix]

Nice one again Nelly, when I left school I had an interview here but never got the job, but four of my mates did and worked there for many years.
We would all meet outside there after work and walk into town for a drink, this was 1981 onwards.
Feel old again, great report, well done.

[Nicola]

Love the old pics and lots of details left!

[KingElvis]

I would LOVE to see this place, one of the best places I've seen lately.