Today we celebrated the birth of the father of radio Guglielmo Marconi. He would have been 139 next Saturday and to mark the occasion it will be open day at Sandford Mill Museum in Chelmsford. My guest today was Peter Watkins who without doubt has been one of the leading lights in arranging many of the displays at the museum.
Having spent some years working at sea with Marconi Marine, Peter started out by recreating a ships’ radio room of the 1960’s. There are now no less than five replica radio rooms at the museum covering each decade from 1905. Peter has also spent 3 years constructing a model of “ELECTRA” a luxury yacht converted by Marconi into a floating radio laboratory. That model will also be on display at next week’s event. Marconi used to transmit signals from the yacht and one of the receiving stations was actually here in Brentwood on a patch of land on the corner of Hatch Road and Doddinghurst Road; Marconi Gardens is now located on part of the site!
CARS (The Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society) will also be there next week talking to other amateurs around the world who will all be chasing the prized QSL card bearing the special call sign which will only be used during this very special day.
There will also be a good many “hands-on” exhibits for both adults and children.
The exhibition includes the original hut used by Marconi’s experimental station 2MT which was established in Writtle back in 1920. Whilst they do not have the original transmitter, they do have the actual piano used in those pioneer broadcasts, which used to be wheeled out from the local pub and across the road to the hut from which the programmes originated.
If you’d like to join in on the special day, it’s all free and happening next Saturday between 10am and 5pm at Sandford Mill Museum, Sandford Mill Road, off Chelmer Way, Chelmer Village, Chelmsford CM2 6NY.
Listen again to my chat with Peter right here: – [audio:https://www.phoenixfm.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Sandford-Mill-Museum.mp3|titles=Sandford Mill Museum]
In the second hour Frances Clamp took our look at history much further back to the times of the Pilgrim Fathers, some of whom came from Billericay and who went on to found the town of Billerica (pronounced Biller-EEK-er) in Massachusetts in the USA. Unsurprisingly Billerica is twinned with our very own Billericay. You can hear what Frances told me here: – [audio:https://www.phoenixfm.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Bygones-16th-April2.mp3|titles=Bygones 16th April]
I’m not here next week so Nick Field has kindly agreed to stand in for me. All being well therefore, I’ll see you in a fortnight’s time.
All the best,
Scott
