Marconi Works, 1920

A Memory of Chelmsford.

I first started working for Marconi in September of 1969. My wife started there the same time as myself. For 22 years it was like working in a large family group. Some you got on with, others you didn't. But through it all we soldiered on. We were in the printed circuit board manufacturing process plant. We made all sorts of boards, both rigid and flexi rigids. Some boards were even made there that fitted in the front of satellite dishes to pick up and decode the signal from the dish itself. Then came the trouble when Arnold Weinstock was due to retire. After all the dust settled, the firm's directors decided in their infinite wisdom to leave traditional market places that had served them and their customers well, and instead to concentrate on the lucrative defence market. So well-known brands like Hotpoint and Schreiber were simply sacrificed and dumped. The in-car mobile phones which were installed at the Waterhouse Lane site; well. they went as well. Everything that the company had profited from before went. Employees could also purchase these products direct from the company at a discount. So you got paid and the company got some of your salary back when you bought from them. It was all round a win, win situation for all concerned. Plus if you thought a product was really well made and good value, the chances were neighbours would look to purchase that same product through a shop. But all that went, and afterwards the in-fighting at board level didn't help. Just before our section closed down I was the vice chairman of the main union there, and also a senior head inspector. Telling people that the jobs we had being doing for years were about to end was no fun at all. The best advice I could ever give anyone was to forget what we had been doing, as it was such a narrow field of expertise. Instead they should look for something entirely different than they had ever done before. What went really wrong was that they were not competitive enough. Now to anyone who drives by, all you can see are the front main offices and security gatehouse, trouble is that all the windows and doors are boarded up to prevent break-ins. Even worst news of all was learning that the developement company who had purchased the site had themselves gone broke. If that wasn't bad enough, the source of their finance had also collapsed, so now it is all in the hands of the receivers. Even they not so long ago have had notices issued by the local borough council to sort the site out, to keep it tidy and to prevent break-ins. Apparently this has already happened. This is such a sorry state of affairs for a once great company site to finish up in. Will there be any good news for this site; only time will tell? Time and any change in the present financial circumstances we all are facing.