Chelmsford is the first City of Essex and the central Borough of the County - located 35 miles north-east of London. It has a long and patchy history with Neolithic and Roman origins, then becoming a market town in 1199. The City has approx. 60,000 citizens and the Borough has a total population of nearly 160,000. It is a modern, but young City, linked with London via the Great Eastern Main Line railway and the A12 dual carriageway. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelmsford