Author Archives: hurdler46
Upminster’s Cosy Corner (137 St Mary’s Lane)
Older residents recall with nostalgia Upminster’s Cosy Corner Café, which was a distinctive feature of the Bell crossroads until it was demolished by Hornchurch UDC in January 1957 in the name of “progress”, to make way for road widening and … Continue reading
Eldred’s smithy
Visitors passing through Upminster and local people going about their business could not fail to see, hear and smell the popular working smithy at the heart of the village, adjacent to the Bell. For much of its existence the business was operated … Continue reading
The Bell Inn
The Bell Inn dominated the crossroads at the centre of Upminster for around 200 years until its demolition in the summer of 1963, to be replaced by a featureless parade of shops with an ugly car park above. These days … Continue reading
St Mary’s Lane, North side: Part 2 – from Garbutt Road to the Cosy Corner Crossroads
The article follows on from the last one which covered the eastern part of the north side, from the Cranham boundary to Garbutt Road. We therefore pick up the story at the west side of Garbutt Road, and continue westwards, … Continue reading
St Mary’s Lane, North side: Part 1 – from the Cranham boundary to Garbutt Road
The earlier article about the south side of St Mary’s Lane ended at the Cranham boundary so that’s where this exploration of the opposite, north side starts. The south side had historically formed the New Place Estate, only developed for … Continue reading
Tales from the grave: the Rowe family of Upminster
I never planned to write this article! I fully intended to keep my promise to publish the history of the north side of St Mary’s Lane. But in local history research the path is rarely straight and narrow – it can … Continue reading
The Road to Cranham – Part 1 South Side
It’s almost half a mile from the main Upminster crossroads eastwards along St Mary’s Lane to the parish boundary with Cranham and although this now forms a continuous stretch of shops and houses, a century ago the stretch of road … Continue reading
The hidden history of Harold Court
Where in Upminster parish was a building erected as a gentleman’s house, that became a children’s home, a “lunatic asylum”, TB sanatorium, local hospital, education college and now flats? Give up? It’s Harold Court, close to the northern extremity of … Continue reading
Historic Upminster Hill
The stretch of St Mary’s Lane running westwards from the main crossroads towards Hornchurch, running down Upminster Hill to the River Ingrebourne at Upminster Bridge, is an area steeped in history, with the greatest concentration of old and listed buildings … Continue reading
Upminster’s Victorian Scandal: Rev P M Holden’s life and times
On this day, 19th January, in 1873, now 143 years ago, the congregation assembled as usual to worship at Upminster’s St Laurence Church and to hear the sermon of their Rector, the Reverend Philip Melancthon Holden, whose “fire & brimstone” orations were … Continue reading
