Cars park where market stalls once stood and chain stores have replaced family run businesses, there is no denying that the high streets of Epping Forest have seen many changes.

From one decade to the next the same streets are barely recognisable, with only a handful of shops standing the test of time.

Pat Aley, 61, of Sunnyside Road, Epping, says that the high street in her town was once a very different place, thriving with food shops, boutiques and a busy market.

She said: “There were butchers shops and green grocers shops, I do think that it was better, there was a bit of everything in Epping High Street.

“Some things are still here like the sorting office and Church’s which has been here since the year dot, that’s nice to see.

“When I was younger there were lots of sweet shops, there was a very popular one called The Golden Iris on the high street.”

More than a decade ago when small towns began feeling the effects of supermarket competition and online advances, six town partnerships were set up in the district to try to draw custom back in.

Norma Green, from Waltham Abbey Town Partnership, says that they are working hard to remind people that there are benefits to using independent retailers.

She said: “I think that in the years gone by there was not the ease of travel that there is today.

“When I was young, in my road of thirty houses, only three people had cars. We would go away shopping as a treat, it was planned for a long time and we could abandon the car outside whichever shop we were visiting but the system has changed now.

“People now travel to places where they can get everything they need.

“All of the town centre partnerships are working hard to target specific issues. Because all of the towns are different, there is no one solution. In Waltham Abbey we have tourist trade but the shops are very small.

“Soon we will celebrate independent retailers month and hold three competitions to get people into the shops.”

Some residents have embraced the changes, 100-year-old Winifred Rumble who lives on Epping High Road says that she does not think that high streets are any worse.

She said: “High streets are very different now, there are a lot more cars and parking problems.

“But there are benefits, we get things that we did not used to and shops are easier to get to.

“They put things outside these days for you to see which they didn’t used to.”