CRHnews - Who lies beneath Chelmsford's Nonconformist Cemetery?

Описание: Local historian Doug Killick walks the talk around Chelmsford's Nonconformist Cemetery, New London Road, in the heart of the City whose claim to American Civil War fame is that is holds the mortal remains of an escaped African-American slave.

Doug digs beneath the surface to tell the untold story of how it came to be built and by whom and, TRAGICALLY,. who was the first to be buried within its walls.

In another plot, covered in rare ivy, Doug discovers the grandfather of a famous Dr Who who is a distant cousin of a Dad's Army favourite.

There is a tree which only exists in three places in the UK, an obelisk which has been returned to its former glory by the descendent of an old Chelmsford family and one of the earliest examples of a photograph of the deceased - who failed to need his mother's advise - on his gravestone.

Providence intervened to echo the 'Dickensian' theme with the sight and sounds of a pair of Luckings black horses pulling a hearse right past the entrance to the cemetery following a funeral service and the end of our filming session, at a Church further down New London Road.

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HE MAY not be as well known as architect Frederic Chancellor, but James Fenton also had grand designs on Chelmsford, according to the Essex Live, formerly the Essex Chronicle.

Now Fenton's legacy as a skilled engineer and surveyor is now remembered thanks to a blue plaque placed on the wall of the impressive New London Road home, originally called Laurel Grove, that he designed and built for £75.

Fenton, who created the elegant street, with its classical cream-coloured brick houses, was commemorated last week, 137 years after his death.

The plaque on the mansion-style house where he and wife Emma lived from 1843 to 1857, was unveiled by Chelmsford mayor Councillor Bob Shepherd, according to the Essex Chronicle.

Cllr Shepherd said the decision to award the city its 15th plaque was a considerable honour, deserved by Fenton.

Despite his fame, no known photograph exists of 'Mr New London Road' but many buildings stand as the public face of this Victorian visionary.

Fenton, a Baptist, was born in Reading in 1805, but, moved to Chelmsford in 1830 on his marriage to Emma, the only daughter of wealthy fellow non-conformist solicitor John Copland and their union on July 8 was announced in the Essex Chronicle.

Fenton first lived above a shop at Tindal Square, until building his first family home at 79 Springfield Road in 1834.

A decade later he and Emma moved into their dream home, occupied by the Chelmsford Club (see below) since 1938.

Fenton began his career specialising in workhouses, but he also designed non-conformist chapels at Chelmsford, Billericay and Ingatestone – as well as one at his home. His own private chapel extension, currently occupied by a professional-sized snooker table, is topped by a roof lantern, with plain stained-glass windows.

Bankrolled by the Coplands, he developed a large area on the south of town with spacious homes between 1839-43 which became New London Road.

He also built the city's first mains water and sewerage.

Chelmsford (formerly Ebeneezer Strict) Baptist Chapel, and Chelmsford Institute, Bellfields, Thornwoods and a Non-conformist Cemetery were also his work and he was laid to rest in the latter in 1875.

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