The History Of Marconi Ponds.

Marconi Ponds 1989

Talk to some Marconi veterans and they will probably tell you that what we now call, The Marconi Ponds are what they knew as, The Filter Beds or The Crompton Ponds.  Other water tanks and ponds used by Marconi Radar  and, earlier, by Crompton Parkinson, Ltd.  were further away from the railway and were filled in and built over in the Sixties and Seventies.  However, the filter beds were and are ponds, in the sense of being pits filled with water, and were just part of a complex system of water supply by the ever self-sufficient Colonel Crompton for his Arc Works on the site.  Ponds they remain and the area now occupied by the nature reserve has been known as The Marconi Ponds ever since Marconi Radar left the site in 1994, after when Fairview Homes, plc.acquired it for the development that is now known as, The Village.

2.  The Early History of the Site.  

Chelmsford Survey Map 1591

2.1. To appreciate the early history of the site it is necessary to imagine it without the massive railway embankment that now dominates its eastern flank and without the Village housing estate or the E2V works on its other borders, between Writtle Road and Waterhouse Lane.  On the Chapman and Andre map of 1777 (Our earliest map of the site that shows any useful detail), it is just an area of farmland and orchards.

   
Map of Chelmsford 1777

2.2. The site remained undeveloped until the railway came to Chelmsford at the beginning of the 19th. Century. Until then the whole area, of pasture and orchards, was owned by the Mildmay Estate. Then, in 1838, the Mildmay family sold a strip of it to the Eastern Railway Company for 10,000. Before then they had been unable to dispose of any of the estate because they could not escape from what Chelmsford historian, the late Hilda Grieve, describes as, .the legal straightjacket which had hampered sales of their entailed estate.  The 1833 Act for the Abolition of Fines and Recoveries simplified a complicated situation and enabled the sale of land to the railway company to proceed.  The Chelmsford Tithe Map of 1843 shows the area known as Further Field and Gold (or Golden) Field bisected by the railway strip but, as pasture land, let out by Lady Mildmay to one George Simpson   

2.3. (The Mildmay estate had been established by Thomas Mildmay, in 1540, when he purchased the Manor of Moulsham, which had been surrendered to Henry VIII by the Bishop of London.  The Mildmay name first appeared in Chelmsford history in 1506, when Thomas father had acquired a stall in the market.  Thomas himself prospered and became a Crown official, The Auditor, and gradually established the estate by purchases of former religious property, including the Friary, which had been dissolved in 1538 and, in 1563, the Manor of Chelmsford. When he died, in 1566, he handed on a considerable amount of property, including the town itself, to his eldest son, the first Sir Thomas Milday, Knight.  From this time the estate was entailed to the nearest male heir; so that the following three hundred years saw a rather complex pattern of inheritance until the entail was broken in 1833, as noted above.  Like that of so many old families, the Mildmay Estate had arisen from what might be seen as the first great privatisation, under Henry VIII, as a result of his difficulties with the established Church that led to the dissolution of the monasteries and sequestration of Church property.  Thomas Mildmay was an astute Tudor Sid! In Chelmsford Cathedral there are two impressive Mildmay tombs, reflecting the wealth and status of the family.) 

3. The Industrialisation of the Site.  

Ordinance Survey Map 1874

3.1. Clay Pits and Brickfields.  It was not until after the coming of the railway and the building of the embankment to carry it across the River Can and into Chelmsford, during the second half of the 19th. Century, that land on either side of the railway was developed industrially.  

3.2.  It is sometimes though that the pits that became the ponds were created when spoil was moved to make the railway embankment.  Although this was the case for the lake in Central park, on the north side of the River Can, the spoil for the embankment alongside the Marconi Ponds site probably came from the cutting running into Widford and, possibly, from the Galleywood Common area.  

3.3.  Industrial development came in the mid Nineteenth Century when brick works were established on the east side of the railway embankment, in the Upper Bridge Road area. These were served by clay pits on what is now the wild life site.  It is sometimes suggested that these brick works were developed to provide bricks for the railway viaducts that carry the rails through Chelmsford and over its rivers but the clay workings and brick fields were not started until after the viaducts had been built.  

3.4.  The first reference to a brick field around the Upper Bridge Road area is in 1843, in the Tithe Record for that year. Records of various companies and individuals engaged in the brick business continue up to the end of the century and for a few years beyond. For example, the Anchor Brick Company from 1878 to 1886 and one James Brown from 1874 to 1902.  However, the clay pits and brick kilns have left a distinctive mark on the history of Chelmsford.  A vein of grey clay was discovered which produced the easily recognised light coloured bricks that are known as, Mildmay Bricks.  They are evident in buildings all over the town.  An advertisement in the local press, in 1855, mentions a royalty on white bricks and tiles produced in the Upper Bridge Road brickworks.  

Ordinance Survey Map 1896

3.5.  The clay pits were connected to the brick kilns in the Upper Bridge Road area by a tramway that ran along the pits, under the viaduct and into the brick fields.  In 1867 Mr. Fell Christy had applied to the local authority for permission to lay a tramway across the road near his Anchor Street brick field.  It is not clear whether this was the origin of the tramway or merely an extension. The 1875 OS map shows it running the full length of the clay pits, right up to the area now occupied by the ponds but not across the road (Then known as New Writtle Street, now Upper Brgidge Road.) into theAnchor Street Brickfield. Perhaps permission had not been granted. The 1896 OS map shows that the rails had been cut back to the northern end of the site. The tramway was out of use and removed by the turn of the century. There is no visible evidence of it now. However, it will be noticed that most of the wildlife site sits in a depression, below the level of the adjacent footpaths.  This is evidence of the abandoned clay pit workings. (The tramway was a light, narrow gauge track and should not be confused with the main railway siding that was constructed to serve the Arc Works Site, set up by Cromptons at the end of the Century.  See, 3.7, below.)  

3.6. Modern Industry.  What is now the wildlife site is only part of the land that had been occupied by the Crompton Arc Works. The works site was bounded by Writtle Road, Crompton Road, the railway embankment and the present E2V site.  Apart from the ponds themselves, none of the industrial owners made any significant use of the strip of lend that makes up the wildlife area.  

3.7.  Industrial building began on the site in 1896, when Crompton and Company purchased it and constructed the building that now stands along Writtle Road, between Crompton Street and the Parkinson Drive roundabout leading into the Village.  The company was expanding from its Moulsham Street, Anchor Street location.  Its founder, Colonel Crompton, was a self-sufficiency enthusiast and planned to make this new industrial complex independent for water and sewerage services. An artesian well was established near the new building in Writtle Road, providing potable water.  The waste or surplus flowed into tanks and ponds that supplied cooling water for industrial plant and flushing water for lavatories. All the water finished up piped to filter beds the two pieces of water that we now know as, The Marconi Ponds. From there some of it was pumped back as required to top up the tanks on the industrial site.  The ponds ceased being used as filter beds by 1959 and, around 1969, the industrial site was connected to mains water.  

Ordinance Survey Map 1921

3.8.  On maps of the time the industrial complex was called. The Arc Works, where the company produced generators and electric motors.  It remained just Cromptons until 1927, when the company amalgamated with F & A Parkinson of Guisely, to form Crompton Parkinson, Ltd..  Later, the company ran into into financial trouble over a commercial miscalculation related to the electrification of the railways. In 1968 it was taken over by Hawker Sidley, who closed the works.  However, for marketing purposes, although the production had moved to Hawker Sidley works elsewhere, the new owners established their Contracts Department in 198, New London Road (Now BBC Essex.) so that buyers would still be attracted to the goodwill of the quality attached internationally to the name of Chelmsford in the manufacture of heavy duty electrical equipment  

3.9.  In the following year, in 1969, the Arc Works site was purchased by GEC and became the headquarters, development and manufacturing location of Marconi Radar. The original company, Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, had for many years occupied a manufacturing and administrative site near the railway station and had become and remained a major employer in Chelmsford until 1994.  At that time GEC had run down its activities in Chelmsford and finally disposed of the Arc Works site. A building known as F Block was leased to the Post Office, who remained there until 1970, but the whole site was being gradually cleared, except for the original 1896 building on Writtle Road, which is listed.  The land finally passed into the hands of Fairview Homes, plc. with planning permission for residential development; though the Borough Council had hoped that it would be possible to keep it for manufacturing and employment.  

3.10. Memories of the industrial use of the site are preserved in some of the road names in the Village: Crompton Street and Parkinson Drive.  In the older part of  Crompton Street there is even an Arc View.  Further afield, Cromar Way, off Waterhouse Lane, is derived from a abbreviated combination of Crompton and Marconi.  

4. The Site in War Time.

Ordinance Survey Map 1940 

4.1. Because of its essential, war-related industries and the importance of its railway, Chelmsford received many bombing raids during the Second World War.  Along with Marconi and Hoffmans factories, which were in the town centre, the Arc Works and the adjacent rail viaduct were a conspicuous and strategic target.  Hoffmans and the Marconi works were hit but the Crompton Arc Works were unscathed. 

4.2. Although the site was not hit, it is possible to deduce from the fall of bombs that the works were a target.  For example, on 14th. May, 1943, six high explosive bombs fell across an area bounded by the railway and New London Road, from Hayes Close south westwards to Cherry tree lane.  In fact, the two explosions in Cherry Tree Lane were the closest the raiders got to the site, except for one hit on the west end of Bradford Street, on 21 November 1940.  Even that was on the wrong side of the railway tracks from the works site. Of course, the intruders could have been after the railway itself.  Had the rail viaduct been destroyed railway communication would have beeen disrupted for a very long time.



Ordinance Survey Map 1943



Bomb Strikes Near Marconi Ponds 1943
 
4.3. ( Also in 1940, on 13 October, a high explosive bomb fell on the house that stood on what is now the site of Christchurch, killing the Mayor of Chelmsford and his family.  That bomb was probably aimed at the Arc Works  or the railway.) 

4.4.  To the south, on the 11th. March 1941, another high explosive bomb had scored a direct hit on the approach road to the railway bridge in Princes Road.  One can only speculate whether that was another miss for the works or an accurate attack on the railway. Apart from surviving these ineffective attacks, the main contribution to the war effort on the present wildlife site was the Dig for Victory output of the allotments that had been established in the Nineteen Twenties.

5. Establishing the Wildlife Site.

Ordinance Survey Map 1951

5.1. After Marconi left the works site, in 1994, it was sold to Fairview Homes, plc. for development as a major new residential area, which we now know as, The Village. Under Town and Country Planning legislation permission for such a development usually has conditions attached, including money for community benefit, which is known as a Section 106 Agreement.  In the case of the Village, the Planning Agreement involved handing over to Chelmsford Borough Council the strip of land that makes up the wildlife site, plus 80,000 Section 106 money that was to be used to develop the site with community involvement. ( Except for using the ponds as filter beds or sinks  and installing a pumping facility, neither Cromptons nor Marconi had used the site beyond what is now the fenced area.  It was left largely as wilderness, right down to where the embankment becomes the viaduct.  There had been an area of allotments on the south side of the ponds but these were moved to the north side when Marconi Radar extended an adjacent building, known as E Block.  It is also known that the ponds were regularly fished until the stocks were destroyed, when the ponds dried out during the summer drought of 2006.)

5.2. Fairview Homes had employed a consultant to work up a plan for the site.  By 2003 several versions were produced but nothing that was acceptable or practical. The Borough Council then employed its own consultant, who produced the plan that has since been the basis of development.  In 1994 the Borough Council Parks Department fenced the area immediately around the ponds for safety purposes.  There was also a growing safety issue over pits that were being dug and left on the site by bottle collectors exploiting the parts that had been a 19th. Century rubbish dump.  The difficulties were overcome by a rather original but effective approach by the Borough Council, They asked the Essex Bottle Diggers Society to clear the area officially, with help from a CBC mechanical digger.  This put a stop to piecemeal activities that had left the dangerous pits.  It also satisfied the bottle collecting enthusiasts.  

Ordinance Survey Map 1960

5.3. The essence of the Planning Agreement was,  and still is , an emphasis on Community involvement in the development of the wildlife site.  Around 1997 the Borough Council had set up a number of Focus Groups, one of which was to be concerned with environmental protection.  Among other issues this Focus Group for the Environment was to be concerned with the Marconi Ponds site.  Unfortunately, being under resourced and lacking the necessary expertise among its members, this group failed to deliver and faded from the scene.  In 2005, around the time of the bottle digging events, the Borough Council, using the Section 106 money, asked the Chelmsford Environment Partnership to manage the project, chiefly to establish the community involvement that had been required in the original Planning Agreement.   

5.4. The Partnership appointed a Project Manager and continued to employ the consultant who had produced the development plan for the Borough Council.  Within a very short time, in 2007, a Friends Group had been set up, with management and administrative support provided by the Partnership; the sort of professional support that is vital for such community involvement to succeed.  A neighbouring company, E2V, generously allowed the new group to meet in the companys sports pavilion that is adjacent to the site. The Marconi Ponds Wildlife Site was in business. 


 
 
In preparing this history of the site I am indebted to the staff of the Essex Record Office and to Old Marconi Hands, Brian Greatrex and Jimmy Easton, and to Steve Plumb, Consultant to the Chelmsford Environment Partnership.
 
Robert J. Jones, November, 2007.

A History of the Marconi Ponds Wildlife Site by Robert J. Jones.