History

Recent History

In May 1991, a brand-new Brentwood Cathedral was dedicated by Cardinal Basil Hume. Funded solely by anonymous donors, the cathedral was was built in an Italianate Classical style by architect Quinlan Terry.

During the 1990s, Brentwood gained notoriety as the most boring town in Britain. It all began when the manager of Brentwood Theatre, David McClucky, discovered he had a disease called foot-in-mouth. In the lead up to the Brentwood Festival, he admitted to a reporter that he found it 'hard to pick something interesting about Brentwood'. No amount of justification could keep the media off it (after all, it is endlessly amusing to rearrange the letters of Brentwood to make 'bored town') and now it is a running joke of national significance.

Modern Day History

Brentwood's main church, originally a Gothic-style parish church built in 1861, was officially elevated to cathedral status in 1917.

In 1934, Brentwood parish was enlarged to encompass Hutton, Ingrave and South Weald. Forty years later, however, the parish was abolished and Brentwood became part of a bigger Brentwood district. In 1993, the district became a borough.

Amstrad, an electronics manufacturer founded in 1968, is based in Brentwood. Locals have reportedly been outraged at the suggestion that Amstrad's headquarters are in London, as television's 'The Apprentice' would have the public believe. Brentwood, in fact, has that important claim to fame.

Brentwood became the trampolining capital of the universe - well, of the UK! - in 1949. Not only did George Nissen bring the sport here, he manufactured trampolines in Brentwood for many years. Even though the factory is gone, Brentwood still has a very bouncy trampolining community.

Random but true, Brentwood was once home to a British East India Company elephant-training school - but life in Essex proved too fast-paced for the large animals so they plodded offshore for a more peaceful existence.

Pre 20th Century History

The town's name originates from a distortion of the words 'burnt' and 'wood'. 'Burntwood', a name which can still be seen on old maps, is thought to explain how the area was settled in the Forest of Essex, later known as Epping Forest. Rather than felling the trees by hand, early inhabitants may have cleared with fire.

Originally, Brentwood was an ancient parish of just 186ha (460 acres).

In his book I, Claudius, Robert Graves refers to Brentwood as the place where Claudius defeated the Britons in AD 44. However, it is a semi-fictionalised work and cannot be taken as entirely accurate. Brentwood was, however, a meeting place of Jack Straw and his mates - the instigators of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 - who hatched their plans over pints of ale. On the subject of pubs, The White Hart, now the Sugar Hut, is over 500 years old.

The Essex assizes, or criminal and civil court sittings, were held at Brentwood and at Chelmsford.

Brentwood's 12th-century Thomas à Becket Chapel, which is now a crumbling ruin, was a popular stopover for pilgrims making their way to Canterbury.

The Brentwood School is a public school founded in 1557 by Sir Anthony Browne. It was built on the site where William Hunter was burned to death - he refused to accept the Catholic notion of transubstantiation, or the changing of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. Browne, who was a Justice of the Peace under Queen Mary, established the school as penance for Hunter's death after Elizabeth I was crowned.