CHELMSFORD TOUR Chelmsford Town in general (Chelmsford in General)

Member Name: nayland

Product:	Chelmsford in General
Date:	21/08/09 (68 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Plenty to do and see

Disadvantages: Nothing

I thought I would write a bit about the place where I like to go shopping or just for a day out. This is Chelmsford, the County Town of Essex. This town has the population of just over 157,000 and goes back to the Roman days when in AD60 it started to develope into a small town. It was then called Caesaromagus which meant " market-place of Caesar". This is the only town in Britian to have the name Caesar in it. Many years later it was granted the right to have a market on one day a week that being a Friday. That was over 800 years ago and the market today can still be found flourishing on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Friday and Saturdays.

This market has a very wide selection of stalls and is undercover beneath a
multi-story car park. You will find a selection of stalls with good fruit and veg, plants, bags, pet supplies, cards and calenders, food, butchers, shoes, ect.... my favourite two are the cheese stall and the magazine stall.

Starting with the cheese this has a variety of cheeses, because some are getting close to their sell by date you get great bargains. For an example in
the past I have had nets of 12 baby bel cheese 3 for £1.50 they usually have about 2 weeks left which is plenty for us as they go so quickly, also
Leerdammer Slices in packs of 24 for £1. I also get when I can as they don't get them often a bag of a 100 pats of butter ( like Countryside or Anchor)
they used to be £1 but my last lot cost £1.50 which is great as you can pop them in the freezer and just get out what you need!

The other stall is the Magazine one, which has a very large selection of mags
and books. The magazines can sometimes be quite a bit out of date, but
some of them are only last month still with the free gifts on the front. These mags vary from Good Food, OK, Good Housekeeping, Gardeners World, Glamour, Mother & Baby, Slimming World, Red, Cosmopolitan, Anglers Mail, ect.... these are 60p each or 3 for £1.50. These are also a good selection of puzzle books and childrens comics.

Once coming out of the market you are met with a large selection of shops that are undercover this is called Higher Chelmer you will find shops like New Look, Boots, Top Shop, JJB, Starbucks, Body Shop, Thorntons, Peacocks, ect... on walking through this area which has just had a makeover you will notice how clean and bright it is in there. On coming out at the other end you are met with an open area with more shops like
Debenhams, Clintons, M & S, Poundland, Macdonalds, Gap, Next ect...

When walking down you come to yet another undercover shopping area which is called The Meadows, this has shops like Dorothy Perkins, Ann Summers, Evans, BHS, Superdrug, Millies Cookies, Wilkinsons ect....

The Meadows runs along side the River Can which is a lovely river that you can follow along and on a sunny day you will see a lot of fish swimming around. Along this part you have several pubs ( which are all modern looking apart from Yates ) They have Edwards where you can sit outside and enjoy life, Lloyds bar(which has recently changed it's name and I can't remember what too!) Que Pasa again another outside job if you please. I quite like going to Yates as this has an upstairs balcony you can sit in that over looks the river which is great on a hot day!

If you follow the river you will come to Chelmsford Park which is lovely to wander about in with the colourful beds, there are plenty of seating areas and childrens play area which is enclosed. If you continue you will soon be
able to see Essex County Cricket Ground. This is a very popular cricket ground.

Chelmsford was also known for it's Marconi Factory the birthplace of Broadcasting, with it's first factory being built in 1899, with a further new one being built in 1912. It had it's first entertainment radio broadcast on the 15th June 1920.

There is a park and ride just outside Chelmsford so you need not worry about finding somewhere to park when you get there. If you are in a sporting mood, you could go Ice Skating as I did earlier this year. I'm completely rubbish, but I had a great time there with my family. This is adjacent to the swimming pool which is outdoors and indoors.

Of course Chemlsford is known for it's V Festival that is held in Hylands Park, which begins this weekend. This goes on all over the weekend with lots of well known bands and people like Lily Allen, Katy Perry, Keane, The Killers, Oasis, Snow Patrol ect.... the list goes on and on. This attracts thousands and thousands of people of all ages and it is funny if you go in to Chelmsford ona Monday morning as you will see lots of people wandering around with their colourful arm bands still on! This is always a quick sell out so it is best to get your tickets in April !

If you are into museums then you will like this one The Chelmsford Museum,
this covers the history of Chelmsford from the Ice Age right through to today.
It also has a reconstruction of a Victorian Kitchen, a Thirties Kitchen, a Forties Living Room, also with toys from the fifties and sixties which is great for kids to see what was about at that time. There is also an Art Collection, Natural History with stuffed animals and birds.

There are so many things to write about Chelmsford that you could go on and on, but I will finish with just one last thing and that being the beautiful
Cathedral which is worth a visit. It's not the biggest in the world but lovely and if you go in on a Friday lunchtime you can sit and listen to one of the local choirs be it the police choir or local schools this is free and is lovely to listen to. This is not always on so it is best to check I think the next session begins in September. Well I hope I have opened your eyes to a small bit of Chelmsford!

Summary: A lovely place to just shop or just visit !!