page_title: East of England
section_title: Industrial heritage
hierarchical_section_title: East of England / History / Industrial heritage
caption_attribution_description: English: Road Sign, Chelmsford Marconi took over a former silk mill in Chelmsford in 1898 and established it as the world´s first radio factory - the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company Limited. The Marconi Company´s manufacturing business in Chelmsford expanded so rapidly that a new factory was built in 1912 in New Street. In June 1920 the first publicised entertainment broadcast in England was transmitted from the New Street site when Australian prima donna Dame Nellie Melba sang at a concert sponsored by the Daily Mail. Permission was given to transmit regular entertainment broadcasts, and a station was set up at the hut at Writtle. Using its call sign Two Emma Toc (2MT), it began transmitting in February 1922.
context_page_description: The East of England is one of nine official regions of England situated at the first level of the European Union's Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics. NUTS is an administrative structure for referencing the subdivisions of countries for statistical purposes. This structure was given its current form in 2018 and revised in 2020 to account for changes in EU membership. The East of England region was created in 1994 and adopted for statistics purposes from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Essex has the highest population in the region.
  The population of the East of England region at the 2011 census was 5,847,000.
  Bedford, Luton, Basildon, Peterborough, Southend-on-Sea, Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Chelmsford and Cambridge are the region's most populous towns. The southern part of the region lies in the London commuter belt.
context_section_description: Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies of Ipswich built the first engine-powered commercial lawnmower in 1902. The firm would later own Mountfield. The Chorleywood bread process from 1961 changed bread production all over the world. John Dickinson Stationery of Hertfordshire was the first company to produce gummed envelopes in 1850, and windowed envelopes in 1929 (in production quantities). The Thursford Collection in Norfolk is the country's biggest collection of steam engines.
  The Marconi Company's New Street Works on the B1008 in Chelmsford was the world's first radio factory in 1912; on 15 June 1920, Britain's first radio broadcast was made by Dame Nellie Melba. The first radio broadcast in the UK was in December 1919 from Marconi in Chelmsford, broadcasting news for the first time in December 1920. The world's first scheduled broadcast from the 2MT (Two Emma Toc) Marconi transmitter at Writtle was from 14 February 1922, only on Tuesday evenings. The world's first real-time computer (Type 152) with memory store (Williams tubes) was built in 1947 by the Elliott Brothers Research Laboratories at Borehamwood; the site became Marconi Avionics in 1978 and GEC Avionics in 1984, and also had GEC Computers.
  Glues for the Mosquito wooden airframe were developed by Norman de Bruyne at his Duxford-based Aero Research Limited, which invented Araldite; the site is now owned by Hexcel. The Mosquito fuselage was made from two halves of balsa wood (Ochroma) from Ecuador, and Canadian Birch, which had a madapollam fabric over the surface; the wings were made from plywood and spruce. De Havilland built the Comet (the world's first jet airliner, first flying in July 1949 when piloted by John Cunningham, powered by DH jet engines, and designed by R.E. Bishop) at Hatfield, and built the Blue Streak rocket launcher at its Stevenage base; by the end of WWII the DH Goblin, designed by Frank Halford, was the world's most powerful jet engine. Ball bearings for the Merlin engine came from Hoffman of Chelmsford; its former site is now the Rivermead university campus. 
  The first autoland system demonstrated on an airliner was with a BEA Trident at RAE Bedford in March 1964, with a system developed by Smiths Industries with similar work also done for the RAF at RAF Martlesham Heath; Plessey was a world leader in instrument landing systems (ILS). Rex Pierson from Norfolk, was the main designer for Vickers until the 1950s, designing the Vickers Vimy (which crossed the Atlantic in June 1919) to the Vickers Viscount, both pioneering aircraft. From 1945 to 1992, Rolls-Royce designed and built its helicopter (turboshaft) engines at its Small Engine Division at Leavesden, now a film set, these engines are now built by Rolls-Royce Turbomeca (from 1966). Britain's first satellite constructed in the UK – Ariel 3 (originally titled UK-3) – was built at BAC's Guided Weapon Division in Stevenage in the mid-1960s, later launched in May 1967. The Europa (rocket) was initially mostly British-led by Hawker Siddeley Dynamics at Stevenage and test-fired at Woomera Test Range in Australia, but later the subsequent Ariane (rocket family) would be mostly French-built and launched at Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana; Arianespace is 64% French and 20% German by ownership, and has no British share of ownership. The Rapier (missile) was developed by BAC (guided weapons division) at Stevenage (former English Electric).
  The first transition from hover to free flight of the Hawker Siddeley P.1127 took place on 8 September 1961 at RAE Bedford, with its first conventional flight also there on 13 March 1961; the Harrier was first delivered to RAF Wittering on 18 April 1969 to 1 Squadron; the next squadron to have the Harrier was 4 Sqn at RAF Wildenrath. In June 1954, the first Hunting Percival Jet Provost flew from Luton Airport; it was the world's first-designed jet trainer aircraft. On 30 April 1958, the Buccaneer first flew from RAE Bedford. The Hybrid Air Vehicles HAV-3, unveiled in 2014 at Cardington, is the longest aircraft in the world. The Comet G-ALYP was the first to enter co
caption: Chelmsford is the birthplace of radio
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