Author Archives: hurdler46
Chestnuts corner – north-west of the main crossroads
The north-west corner of Upminster’s main crossroads, which was known to many older residents as Burtons Corner and to earlier generations as Chestnuts or Aggiss’s Corner, was developed over a long period.
Picturing the Branfill Family – The Final Chapter?
My last post updated the story of various portraits owned by the Branfill family with the discovery that several of the paintings which hung in Upminster Hall were sold at auction in 2023 and that a family member still owned … Continue reading
Picturing the Branfill Family – Revisited
Three years ago, in my article “Picturing the Branfill Family” I wrote about an old photo album containing photos, taken in the 1920s or 1930s or earlier, of various portraits of Branfill family members, including several which hung in Upminster … Continue reading
Upminster in Living Memory Revisited
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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
Picturing 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 … Continue reading
Upminster: 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.
Old Upminster 