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Brentwood Leasing

Did You Know?

The early history of Brentwood is obscure. A Bronze Age axe has been found in the district and there is an entrenched camp in Weald Park. However, it is unlikely that early man settled on the site of the town because it was probably part of the Great Forest which covered much of Essex.

There are several facts about Brentwood that may come as a bit of a surprise to you: the famous Sugar Hut nightclub is located in a 15th century coaching inn, meanwhile, the nearby Weald Country Park boasts a staggering 520 acres of wildflower meadows, open grassland and woodland. 

The town of Brentwood was established in the 12th century as a clearing within the great forest of Essex, which covered much of the area. Wood was burnt here (hence ‘burnt wood’) and people settled in the vicinity.

The fledging medieval town became popular with pilgrims travelling from the north and east of England on their quest to worship at the shrine of St Thomas à Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. Brentwood’s then parish church was in South Weald.

Royalty passed through Brentwood in the 1390s when King Richard II and his entourage made their pilgrimage through the town on his way to worship at Canterbury Cathedral. He rested at an inn in the High Street and his personal emblem, the white hart, became the name for that inn.

In the 19th and early 20th century, the High Street in Brentwood housed at least 10 public houses and inns; most of which have long since been demolished or converted into shops. One that is still present today is the Swan Inn.

Brentwood’s successions of local government bodies occupied the Town Hall from the 1860s until 1957 when the Urban District Council moved to a newly-constructed building in Ingrave Road.

The Essex assizes were sometimes held here, as well as at Chelmsford. One such pub was The White Hart  (now a nightclub). One of the oldest buildings in Brentwood; it is believed to have been built in 1480 although apocryphal evidence suggests a hostelry might have stood on the site as much as a hundred years earlier and been visited in 1392 by Richard II.

As the Roman road grew busier, Brentwood became a major coaching stop for stagecoaches, with plenty of inns for overnight accommodation as the horses were rested. A 'stage' was approximately ten miles, and being about 20 miles (32 km) from London.

1958. Some of the pubs date back to the 15th and 16th centuries. Brentwood was also significant as a hub for the London postal service, with a major post office since the 18th century. The major post office on the high street was closed in the 2008 budget cuts.

A British East India Company elephant training school was based in Brentwood and this remained an active army base as a depot for the Essex Regiment until 1959, when much of the site was redeveloped as the European headquarters for the Ford Motor Company.