Chelmsford

Market town and administrative headquarters of Essex, southeast England, at the confluence of the Chelmer and Can rivers, 48 km/30 mi northeast of London; population (2001) 100,000. Corn and cattle are traded. Industries include agricultural services, radio communications, engineering, flour-milling, brewing, and the manufacture of electrical equipment, plastics, and soft drinks (Britvic).

Chemsford has been a market town since the 12th century. The retail market was refurbished at a cost of over £1 million/$1.6 million, and is open five days a week. In 1920 the first wireless-telegraph broadcasting service in the world was transmitted from Chelmsford by Gugliemo Marconi. Local firm Cromptons was one of the first electrical engineering companies in the world. In 1888, Chelmsford was the first town in Britain to have electric street lighting (although the town reverted to gas lighting because it was cheaper).

Chelmsford was the Roman Caesaromagus. The Anglia Polytechnic University was established here in 1992; other campuses of the university are sited in Cambridge and Brentwood. The 15th-century Perpendicular church of St Mary the Virgin became a cathedral in 1914. A grammar school was founded in the town by Edward VI. Chelmsford Spectacular is held every August in Hylands Park, the grounds of Hyland House, an 18th-century listed building.

Chelmsford

Town in Middlesex County, northeastern Massachusetts, USA, on the Merrimack River and Route 495, just to the southwest of Lowell, 37 km/23 mi northwest of Boston; population (1998 est) 33,800. Chelmsford is an industrial and suburban town engaged in varied light industry. There was a major population increase in the 1960s when Chelmsford became a residential suburb for Boston.

Chelmsford's original industry was bog-iron forging, in the 1650s, followed by production of ice, textiles, lumber, and granite in the 19th century. The town became an industrial centre in the 19th century when its residents were mainly Irish.

The town was incorporated in 1655. Around this time, Chelmsford was a ‘Praying Town’, a reserve for Native Americans who had converted to Christianity, but they gave way to settlers.