IT MIGHT be hard to believe but it is 35 years since work began to create the Highwoods Shopping Centre, which changed the face of shopping in Colchester.

At its centre was the Tesco store, with the Highwoods housing and shopping area around it.

These photographs show the scheme as it reached its conclusion with the construction work and grand opening in the autumn of 1981.

But the foundations for it began in 1978, when the scheme for the development was conceived. After going through a public inquiry, government and local authority consultations, the £2 million superstore’s doors opened to eager shoppers for the first time in November of 1981.

The 200-acre site was developed by French Kier, which simultaneously began to market the first of its new homes.

It included 55,000 sq ft of development, 30,000 of which was for shopping and 550 car parking spaces with a petrol stations, a bank and two shops.

Mayor of Colchester at that time, Richard Browning, unveiled a commemorative two and a half ton granite stone designed by Colchester architect Stanley Bragg to mark the occasion.

A £7 million extension was opened in 1986 after a three-day closure for final re-fitting.

And as the building of the new homes on the estate continued, business increased at it’s shopping centrepiece, which had already financed the building of the local community centre.

When the store opened in 1981, a jar of Nescafe instant coffee cost 87p and many prices still included the halfpenny.