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Widford, Essex

ChelmsfordCity of ChelmsfordFormer civil parishes in EssexPopulated places in EssexUse British English from October 2012
St. Mary's Widford geograph.org.uk 50965
St. Mary's Widford geograph.org.uk 50965

Widford is an area of Chelmsford and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Chelmsford, in the Chelmsford district, in the county of Essex, England. It is approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south-south-west of the city's railway station. It encloses a mixed residential, industrial and rural area south of the River Can, east of the River Wid and mostly to the west of the Great Eastern Main Line. In 1931 the parish had a population of 457.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Widford, Essex (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Widford, Essex
Three Mile Hill, Chelmsford Margaretting

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.713 ° E 0.447 °
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Three Mile Hill (London Road)

Three Mile Hill
CM2 8TG Chelmsford, Margaretting
England, United Kingdom
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St. Mary's Widford geograph.org.uk 50965
St. Mary's Widford geograph.org.uk 50965
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St. Philip's Priory

St. Philip's Priory situated on New London Road in Chelmsford, Essex, UK was a Premonstratensian priory of canons regular. It was dedicated to Our Lady Queen of Sorrows and St. Philip Benizi. In the summer of 2022, the canonry relocated to London, founding the Priory of Our Lady of Sorrows, Peckham, in the Archdiocese of Southwark. St Philip's returned to the care of the Diocese of Brentwood. The site of St Philip's Priory was formerly a private house, but was brought by Mr. Henry Shepperd in 1927 for the purpose of installing a community of Servite nuns. The priory and chapel were solemnly blessed and opened on 15 September 1927, the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, by Arthur Doubleday, Bishop of Brentwood. The Servites ran the priory and an adjoining school until the 1990s when the house was purchased by the diocese for use as a presbytery for the nearby parish of Our Lady Immaculate. The Premonstratensian community, which had originally been founded in 2004 in Manchester, established their home at the priory in October 2008 at the request of Bishop Thomas McMahon of Brentwood. In September 2022, the house became a presbytery for local parishes once more. The Premonstratensians served the parish of Our Lady Immaculate on New London Road, together with that of Holy Name, in the Moulsham Lodge area of Chelmsford. The canons also functioned in other roles, such as in academia and chaplaincy work. They now engage in similar ministries in their London priory, serving the parish of Our Lady of Sorrows, Peckham. In 2016, Fr Hugh Allan O.Praem., Prior of Norbertine Community of St Philip's Priory, was appointed the Apostolic Administrator of the Prefecture of the Falkland Islands and Ecclesiastical Superior of the Missions of the islands of Ascension, St Helena and Tristan da Cunha. In keeping with his appointment, he was also given the title of titular Abbot of Beeleigh. Before the Reformation the Premonstratensians had a house at Beeleigh Abbey in Maldon and owned land throughout Essex, including in the Moulsham area where St. Philip's Priory stood.

2MT

2MT was the first British radio station to make regular entertainment broadcasts, and the "world's first regular wireless broadcast" for entertainment. Transmissions began on 14 February 1922 from an ex-Army hut next to the Marconi laboratories at Writtle, near Chelmsford in Essex. Initially the station only had 200 watts and transmitted on 700m (428 kHz) on Tuesdays from 2000 to 2030. Two Emma Toc (as it was called in the British Army Signalling Corps spelling alphabet of the day) was a surprising success. The presenter, producer, actor-manager and writer was Captain P. P. Eckersley, a Marconi engineer. His regular announcement; "This is Two Emma Toc, Writtle testing, Writtle testing", became in a short time quite well known. 2MT led to the creation of its sister station 2LO, and subsequently the BBC. 2MT did not itself become part of the BBC and closed down on 17 January 1923. Peter Eckersley went on to become the founding Chief Engineer at the British Broadcasting Company. The Marconi Hut site at Writtle is commemorated by a nearby information board at Melba Court – named after Dame Nellie Melba who made Britain's first publicised entertainment broadcast from Marconi's New Street factory – unveiled in 1997 by Marconi's daughter Princess Elettra Marconi. The site was sold off and the land used for housing development in the 1990s. A significant part of the original Writtle hut is now preserved at the Sandford Mill Museum of Science and Industry in North Chelmsford, where it forms part of a wireless and broadcasting historic exhibit.