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Writtle

City of ChelmsfordCivil parishes in EssexEngvarB from June 2016Villages in Essex
Aubyns, Writtle, Essex geograph.org.uk 2440653
Aubyns, Writtle, Essex geograph.org.uk 2440653

The village and civil parish of Writtle lies 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Chelmsford, Essex, England. It has a traditional village green complete with duck pond and a Norman church, and was once described as "one of the loveliest villages in England, with a ravishing variety of ancient cottages". The village is now home to Writtle University College, one of the UK's oldest and largest land-based colleges and a partner institution of the University of Essex, the grounds of which once housed a Royal hunting lodge, later the possession of the De Brus and De Bohun families. The suggestion that Writtle is the birthplace of Robert the Bruce, as well as his father Robert de Brus, 6th Lord of Annandale, is contested, though its possession and use by both is incontrovertible. From 1996 until 2017 Writtle hosted the annual southern V Festival within the grounds of Sir John Comyn's Hylands Park. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 5,632, decreasing to 5,383 at the 2011 Census.

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

Writtle
Pump Lane, Chelmsford Writtle

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.729 ° E 0.427 °
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Address

Pump Lane
CM1 3EN Chelmsford, Writtle
England, United Kingdom
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Aubyns, Writtle, Essex geograph.org.uk 2440653
Aubyns, Writtle, Essex geograph.org.uk 2440653
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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.