Widford, Essex

Chelmsford - A History & Celebration

By now, the High Street was crammed with houses: all the plots had been filled. The tenements could only expand lengthways along their own ‘backsides’, and most buildings had a jumble of outhouses, barns and sheds at the rear. Middle Row, which had hitherto backed onto the conduit-stream, now began occupying pockets of land on the west side of the stream, too. Initially, these were used as woodyards, but they soon evolved into half- timbered outbuildings; so Back Lane became somewhat narrower. The High Street, too, grew more restricted when another line of market stalls, permanent enough to have tiled roofs, was erected immediately to the east of Middle Row. These were known as Little Middle Row. The High Street, at this point, was now nine feet wide. Many of the town’s inns were now large and well established: these included the Boar’s Head, which stood on the site of Woolworth’s. Across the road - and stretching down to the bridge - were two inns fused together, the Lion and the Hart; and on the far corner of Springfield Road - where Next now is - was the Crown. Each had a carriageway opening onto a large, enclosed courtyard. Ranged around this major road junction, they were well placed to receive passing custom.

Chelmsford - A History & Celebration

The situation resulted in the formation of a local Board of Health. Their headquarters, ironically, were in the same Middle Row house where the first cholera victims had died. The Board brought about swingeing changes in Chelmsford - although much of it was a question of getting the townspeople to alter things they were perfectly happy with. The members of the Board took steps to get the entire town properly drained, and to restrict animals wandering the High Street too freely on market-day. In 1851 the members of the Board finally shut off the conduit stream, and replaced the domed conduit-head rotunda with Judge Tindal’s statue. From then on, Conduit Square and Back Lane became Tindal Square and Tindal Street, respectively. Market-day was also posing problems for the corn merchants. They were not satisfied that the new Shire Hall provided them with a suitable trading floor. Inside, the building was darkened and cluttered by dividing walls and architectural fripperies. They could only inspect their corn properly by taking it outside. The magistrates made an effort to improve the space, but it was not really a solution. Finally, a purpose-built Corn Exchange was erected in Tindal Square. It opened for business in June 1857, and was certainly a grand building. Its yellow-brick Italianate façade masked a long, glass-roofed trading-area. There were no more complaints about insufficient light. The architect was Frederic Chancellor, a Londoner.

Chelmsford - A History & Celebration

And fair enough - the road signs to Chelmsford do not shout ‘Historic Cathedral City’ - they say things like ‘County town since 1250’, or ‘The birthplace of radio’. Good old Chelmsford: straightforward, practical, and aware of civic duty. What often gets overlooked though, is that it is also an historic cathedral city, in the sense that it is both a cathedral city and historic. And although it is foolish to say that one place is more historic than another - because everywhere is equally historic when it comes down to it - it is indeed true that some places’ histories are more interesting or better documented than others. Chelmsford has been smiled-upon in both respects. Follow a heritage trail around Chelmsford, however, and you can be forgiven for thinking that half of its history lies under car parks. In some cases, you would be right. But if Chelmsford wears its history lightly, it is because it has always been mindful of moving forward, of building on the past. Consider this: give or take a few yards, Guglielmo Marconi founded the world’s first radio factory on the very spot where a 1st-century pagan temple had once stood. Ley-line enthusiasts would undoubtedly discern a paranormal significance in this. I prefer to see it as an example of how a town can rise and rise again, like a phoenix. Anyway, Chelmsford still retains a lot of overground history - it is just a matter of knowing where to look. There can be enormous history in the kink of a pavement, the width of an alleyway. And, being relatively flat, this is a good town to explore on foot.