Brentwood

Brentwood is a town in and the principal settlement of the Borough of Brentwood, in the county of Essex in the East of England. It is located in the London commuter belt, 20 miles (30 km) east-north-east of Charing Cross, and near the M25 motorway. According to the 2011 Census the town had a population of 49,463.It is a suburban town with a small but expanding shopping area and high street. Beyond this are residential developments surrounded by open countryside and woodland; some of this countryside lies within only a few hundred yards of the town centre.Brentwood has been twinned since 1978 with Roth, Germany and since 1994 with Montbazon, France. It also has a relationship with Brentwood, Tennessee in the United States.HistoryEtymologyThe name was assumed by antiquaries in the 1700s to derive from a corruption of the words 'burnt' and 'wood', with the name Burntwood still visible on some 18th-century maps. However, brent was the middle English for "burnt". The name describes the presumed reason for settlement in the part of the Forest of Essex (later Epping Forest) that would have covered the area, where the main occupation was charcoal burning. An alternative meaning of "brent" is "holy one", which could refer to the chapel dedicated to Thomas Becket, for the use of pilgrims to Canterbury.