The lovely suburban town of Brentwood is the kind of place that challenges the old notion that you can't have your cake and eat it too. To be more specific, Brentwood is located right outside of London and thus its residents are treated to all the fantastic upsides that living near a major metropolis offers. Things such as art, the theatre, culture, and other indispensably human ventures are at the hands of anybody living in Brentwood since the town is part of the London Commuter Belt. Conversely, Brentwood is just far enough removed from London to avoid the common maladies that plague big city life. Bad traffic jams, violence, and pollution are things that Brentwood is able to eschew while still retaining all of the positive aspects of city life.
Brentwood is home to over forty thousand people and, not surprisingly, many of these people work in London. Brentwood itself, however, offers plenty of work opportunities and these include such high profile businesses as Amstrad and Equity Insurance Group. In addition, the UK headquarters for the Ford Motor Company is also very near the town. Brentwood is continually expanding and each year it becomes larger in size and scope. After all, London is an ever-growing metropolis and thus its suburbs need to grow similarly lest they lose their identity and become overtaken by the sweeping growth of the big city. What is interesting, however, is the fact that Brentwood is actually a very old town with a rich history all its own; a history that doesn't have as much to do with London as one might assume at first glance.
A long time ago Brentwood used to be almost completely covered by thick forests. This fact is evident even today if one looks at the outskirts of Brentwood and sees the many woods and wildlife that still permeate the area in the right places. At any rate, Brentwood has been a settlement for many centuries and most experts agree that the area first experienced significant and continued residence during the days of the Saxon Empire. This would have been some time around the 600s and, by the 1200s, the area was a town in the strictest sense of the word, boasting a chapel and its very own weekly market. Some experts, however, believe that Brentwood was an important settlement as far back as the first century B.C. This would have placed the town in the era of Roman domination and, to be sure, there are Roman roads that can still be seen in Brentwood. This would add another five hundred years or more to the age of Brentwood and therefore one must be sure before attributing this much age to the town but, alas, it may be impossible to tell exactly when Brentwood first arose. At any rate, it can definitely be agreed upon that the town has been an important and respected part of England long before London's massive growth began to expand without limit. Therefore, it is important to give Brentwood the respect that it is owed and one must always be careful when referring to the town simply as a "suburb".
| 
+44 (0)870 400 9012
