Over the Edge Magazine

12/12/2025

Planning your 2026 diary already? 👀✨

Here’s one fabulous date to add…

Strictly Air Ambulance 2026 is coming to The Brentwood Centre on Saturday 14 March at 7pm – and it’s set to be a showstopper, darling! 💃🕺

Featuring Vincent Simone, Victoria Martin, hosted by Lisa Snowdon & David Whiteley, plus celebrity guest judge Dani Dyer… this is one fundraiser you won’t want to miss.

With Christmas just around the corner, consider this a little taste of what you’ll find inside your December issue of Over The Edge.

✨ 10,000 copies are out across Chelmsford right now!

Make sure you pick up your festive edition.

🎄 From all of us at Over The Edge, we wish you a very Merry Christmas – enjoy the festive reads, community highlights and our curated Christmas playlist!

11/12/2025

Have you checked out our new website yet? ✨

You can now read articles online, browse past print editions, subscribe, and keep up with everything happening in Chelmsford - all in one place.

Take a look 👇
www.overtheedgemag.co.uk

Want to steal our web designer? 😉
Email Shannon at [email protected]

10/12/2025

Chelmsford has changed a lot over the years… but the stories hidden in our ghost pubs are still very much alive. 🍺👻

We’re diving into the history, characters and long-lost corners of our city - starting with three pubs many locals still remember fondly: The Spotted Dog | The Bird In Hand | The Black Boy Inn

If you love local history (or just miss “how things used to be”), you’ll enjoy this series.

Read them all here:

🔗 https://www.overtheedgemag.co.uk/chelmsford/chelmsfords-ghost-pubs-the-spotted-dog

🔗 The Bird In Hand https://www.overtheedgemag.co.uk/chelmsford/chelmsfords-ghost-pubs-the-bird-in-hand

🔗 The Black Boy Inn https://www.overtheedgemag.co.uk/chelmsford/chelmsfords-ghost-pubs-the-black-boy-inn

For this month’s episode of tavern time travel we’re heading back to the early 1970s. It’s a Monday evening and we’ve walked down Upper Bridge Road before turning right into New Writtle Street. Chelmsford City are playing at home this evening and we’re heading to the match. The glow of the...

08/12/2025

Phil's latest Big Interview is now live on the site ⚽️ 💜

This month he sits down with Chelmsford City Football Club legend Tony Butcher – the club’s record appearance maker and goal scorer – to talk paper rounds, hat-tricks, Southern League glory and why football has given him “a wonderful life”.

If you remember City’s glory days (or just love a good local story), this one’s a must-read.

Tony Butcher has an unrivalled status in Chelmsford City’s record books. His 560 matches and 290 goals are both club records. To a generation of Chelmsford folk Tony’s goal scoring exploits as an inside forward are legend, and are synonymous with City’s glory days. A talented player in his you...

28/11/2025

In our December issue, we sat down with Laura, co-founder of Fête Grays Yard, the independent eatery that has quietly become one of Chelmsford’s most-loved community spaces.

What began as a lockdown coffee van has grown into a two-storey restaurant and events space with a team of 28. But the real story?

It’s how Laura and her partner (and head chef) Tobias built it: step by step, hands-on, and with a focus on connection over perfection.

It’s a thoughtful, honest look into what it really takes to build a community-focused hospitality brand in 2025 - and why Fête has become such a special part of Chelmsford life.

Read the full interview in our December edition 👇
https://www.overtheedgemag.co.uk/editions/chelmsford

Originally published on High Flying Design - you can also read the full feature here: https://www.highflyingdesign.com/magazine/founder-stories/laura-day-building-fete-chelmsford

From a three-hour-a-week coffee van to a two-storey independent restaurant, Fête founder Laura Day shares how she built Chelmsford’s most loved eatery - one cup, one conversation, and one community at a time.

27/11/2025

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at OTE! 🎄

Our final issue of the year - wrapped in a gorgeous red bow - will be hitting the streets from Friday 28th November.

And if you can’t wait… it’s already live online 😉

www.overtheedgemag.co.uk

We know it’s a little early, but we’d love to take this moment to wish you all a very happy Christmas.

*Alexa, play: “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday”*

26/11/2025

Our festive edition of Over The Edge is landing on shelves across Chelmsford in the next few days - keep an eye out in your favourite local spots! 🎄📰

Want an early look? You can read the online version right now 👇
https://www.overtheedgemag.co.uk/editions/chelmsford

Packed with community stories, local faces, and a sprinkle of festive cheer - we hope you love this issue as much as we do.

We're also thrilled to spotlight Backhouse Solicitors Limited as our cover stars for the final issue of the year - a brilliant feature to round off 2025.

21/11/2025

What is happening to the Shire Hall? 🤔

Because if there was ever an example of a building with amazing potential, then it has to be the Shire Hall in Chelmsford.

Read Alistair Gillan's piece for Over The Edge 👇

I have to confess, I have mixed experiences with the Shire Hall, some great corporate parties in the ballroom, then the not so great experience of getting a six month driving ban for “totting up”. Curse the early days of speed cameras. However ... it has a rich history, and is such an impressive...

21/11/2025

Missed our September issue starring Springfield Renovations Limited on the front cover and Total fix home improvement on the back?

Don't worry - you can catch up on the digital print edition right here: https://www.overtheedgemag.co.uk/editions/chelmsford

Same great mag, fewer paper cuts. ⚡️

19/11/2025

West Ham fans, football lovers… you’re going to enjoy this one. ⚒️🔥

This week on Over The Edge, Deaks sits down with former England international and Premier League legend Joe Cole — and it’s an interview packed with nostalgia, honesty and brilliant behind-the-scenes insight.

From his early days as West Ham’s academy prodigy (with Sir Alex calling weekly to ask about him 👀), to lifting trophies at Chelsea, to that iconic England career… Joe reflects on it all.

Read the full interview here ⬇️

Joe Cole began his career with West Ham United where, after breaking into the first team in 1999, he played more than 160 Premier League games over six seasons in two separate spells. He was one of a number of players who left West Ham United in the summer of 2003

18/11/2025

If you love a bit of Chelmsford history, you’re going to enjoy this one… 👀🍻

Over The Edge's very own Phil Claydon has just published a brand-new deep dive into one of the city’s most fascinating ghost pubs: The Black Boy Inn - a coaching inn that stood proudly at the junction of High Street and Springfield Road for over 300 years.

From royal rumours (yes, Richard III makes an appearance 👑), to mail-coach departures twice a day, to Charles Dickens calling Chelmsford “the dullest and most stupid spot on earth” while staying there… this spot has seen everything.

Today, we walk past Metro Bank at 38 High Street without realising the layers of story beneath our feet - but this article brings it all back to life.

Take a look and step back in time with us ⬇️

This month has us truly Lost Inn Time as we head way back four and a half centuries to the junction of High Street and Springfield Road. Here stands a hostelry with medieval heritage, on a site previously owned by the influential De Vere family. There’s even an uncorroborated tale that, one day, K...