It’s been over twenty years since the publication in 2000 of Upminster in Living Memory – a collection of eight memoirs of folk born between 1905 and 1933 who grew up or lived in Upminster when it was still very much an Essex beauty spot. In those two decades more records have become available to flesh out detail to the people mentioned by the authors, and this article explores those memories with a fresh eye and add further background research.
Continue readingUpminster in Living Memory Revisited
Posted in Upminster People & Events
Tagged A D Macgregor, Bassett Confectioners Upminster, Brian Moore, Cranston Park Estate, Emerson Park School, Gaynes School, Gerald Sykes Choirmaster, Great Gaynes, Hacton, Harold Moore Hill Stores, Hilda Halestrap, May Festival, Muriel Sharp, New Place, Park Corner Farm, Rowe Family, Tadlows, Upminster's Bonanza
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God’s Acre – St Laurence Churchyard
By tradition known as “God’s Acre”, the parish churchyard is the place where generations of parishioners found their final resting place. The churchyard of St Laurence is no exception, with some gravestones and tombs dating back over three hundred years to the eighteenth century while some others date to more recent times.
Continue readingPicturing the Branfill family
The Branfill family of Upminster Hall were prominent landowners in Upminster for over two hundred years from 1685 but we have had no images to show us what they looked like. Upminster’s historian Thomas Lewis Wilson recorded a long list of 23 portraits of the Branfills and other relations which were hanging in Upminster Hall in 1881. Wilson included an engraving by Benjamin Branfill of one family member, but apart from a bust of Andrew Branfill (1640-1709) on his memorial in Upminster Church the family’s images have remained mystery. Until now that is.
Continue readingUpminster: The Story of a Garden Suburb – 25 years on
It hardly seems possible that it is now 25 years since Upminster: the Story of Garden Suburb was launched with a book signing in the Roomes Store on Station Road, Upminster on Saturday 9th November 1996.
Continue readingUpminster Hall: manor and estate
At the Domesday Survey of 1086 Waltham Abbey’s Upminster manor was made up of the Abbey’s estate of around 340 acres, with another 1,200 acres of so of woodland. The male tenant population of 13 had four ploughs between them to carry out their obligations to work on the Lord’s land. These tenants were split into three categories: there were six “villeins”, who held the largest plots, possibly up to 30 acres, four “bordars” each with a smaller holding – perhaps five acres or so – and three “serfs” who either held a small plot of land, or none at all. The survey also recorded a “sokeman” – a tenant free of working on the Lord’s land – who held 30 acres and half a “carucate” (a ploughland – possibly around 60 acres).
Continue readingSeven Years!
It was seven years ago today, on 21 December 2013, that I launched this Upminster website and here we are 35 lengthy blog posts, around 100,000 words and around 70,000 website hits later we’re still going strong. When I started, after 20 years of researching Upminster’s past, I don’t think I ever imagined where this journey might take me but here we are, almost at the end of 2020, far more advanced than I would have guessed.
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The Branfills at Upminster Hall
The aftermath of the recent Black Lives Matters protests has thrown a spotlight on historic figures who had links with the slave trade. Upminster has not escaped this scrutiny which has brought to light unpleasant local connections with the Branfills of Upminster Hall and a call for a road and a school in Upminster to be renamed to erase these links. Continue reading
Posted in Upminster People & Events
Tagged Andrew Branfill, Benjamin Branfill artist, Branfill, Braund family, Champion Branfill, Champion slave ship, Guinea man, John Harrison EIC, Rev James Bearblock, Robert James East India Company, Royal African Company, Upminster Hall, Upminster Hall Manor
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Old Upminster 