Brentwood's rich history has been explored through maps dating back almost 300 years at Essex Record Office in Chelmsford.
Here, archivists Sarah Ensor and Allyson Lewis discussed four maps depicting different stages in Brentwood's development between 1717 and 1920.
The earliest map was painstakingly hand drawn onto parchment.
"Someone would have gone out and measured it all as there was no way of getting up to look down on it from the sky," Ms Ensor explained.
"One of the noticeable things about this map, and one of the main reasons it was created, is that it shows who owned what land. Land is divided into sections with names on each plot.
"It wasn't listed as a map of Brentwood, but of South Weald. This is because back then Brentwood wasn't a parish – this didn't happen until much later.
"It was made on parchment because it's very strong and it is in relatively good condition after all these years and it hasn't needed restoration.
"We might fill in the holes in the parchment but we would never draw over the original."
Ms Lewis added: "It is very imaginative, all the houses are drawn separately.
"And because you have the major roads with the High Street, you should be able to map it onto a modern map and compare the two. You can also see Wilsons Corner and Brentwood School, which was then labelled as the free school.
"The big building you can see in the centre of the High Street is the White Hart."
The White Hart pub was known well beyond its appearance in the reality series The Only Way Is Essex as the Sugar Hut nightclub.
The building dates back to 1480 and for centuries was known as the White Hart Inn.
Situated in the centre of the market town, it was a central part of the community with meetings of the Assize courts, manor courts and other public events.
The archives have records of an innkeeper of the pub in the early 17th century named Thomas Taber.
In 1620, he accused one of his servants, William Flaxon, of stealing items including "one payre of greene stockines worth ten pence" and "one fallinge bande worth sixpence".
In 1795, the licensee was William Lenny and when the White Hart was put up for sale in 1864, the innkeeper was Catherine Moull.
Another map, created 60 years later in 1777, shows how quickly map making became more advanced.
Ms Ensor said: "This one covers the whole of the centre of Brentwood.
"The town was starting to take over South Weald as the focus of the area but at this stage it was still in between."
She explained that this map was financed by subscription so that if you sponsored the map your name would be printed on it.
"You could buy different copies of the map and this page was originally made as part of a book."
A third map held at the record office and shown to the Gazette was created in 1872.
This shows the Victorian town in a huge level of detail including the interior layouts of some public buildings.
Ms Lewis said: "This is an Ordinance Survey map and is drawn over a huge scale, 120 inches to a mile, whereas the 1777 map was 25 inches to a mile."
She noted an interesting detail on this map where individual cells in the police station are drawn.
"And of course the White Hart is still there," she added.
The 1872 map also clearly shows the former position of the Town Hall, the Lion & Lamb pub (now Dorothy Perkins) and the chapel ruins.
The latest map discussed was created in 1920 and showed the style of cartography had changed completely by this time. Builders would have used this more technical document for planning.
All these maps and many others depicting Brentwood and the surrounding area can be found at Essex Record Office.
For more information, call 01245 244644.
