Battle to save last piece of Chelmsford radio heritage

A campaign group in Chelmsford has just over a month to raise £380,000 to keep a slice of radio history in the city.

Guglielmo Marconi, known as the inventor of radio, based himself in the town from the start of the 1900s.

The first factory his operations were run from is due to be converted to flats unless the money can be raised for a section to be kept as a heritage and learning centre.

All over Chelmsford are signs of the city's Marconi heritage. The world's inventor of radio chose Chelmsford as his base.

It was in a factory in Hall Street in 1899 that the first wireless equipment was ever manufactured.

Now an empty building, it's on the brink of being converted into flats.

Campaign group Marconi Science Worx is trying to raise money to keep part of the building dedicated to Guglielmo Marconi, by turning it into a heritage and science hub.

• Guglielmo Marconi is credited with being the inventor of radio - being the first to transmit signals over about a mile and a half in 1895.

• His "Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company" opened its first factory in Chelmsford four years later (1899).

• By 1965 the company had 13 divisions with factories in Chelmsford, Baddow, Basildon, Billericay, and Writtle.

• The Marconi factory on New Street in Chelmsford closed in 2008 ending more than a hundred years of history."

Read more on the history of Marconi

The building on Hall Street is the last in Chelmsford with that link to Marconi which hasn't already been converted to flats or apartments.

Marconi was only 24 years old when he bought the factory. By keeping part of its history in place, says the campaign group, future generations of young scientists will follow.

Click below to watch a report from ITV News Anglia's Hannah Pettifer