WE'VE dug out these aerial photographs from our archives to show how north Essex has - and hasn't - changed in the last three decades.

All of the pictures in the collection were taken in the early to mid 1980s by former Gazette and Essex County Standard photographers, who travelled up in a plane to capture north Essex from the sky.

Colchester, Coggeshall, Tiptree, Tollesbury, Easthorpe, Ardleigh, Chappel Wivenhoe and Brightlingsea are included in the pictures.

If you have an old picture you'd like to share, email gazette.letters@nqe.com.