Tag Archives: Branfill
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
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 … Continue reading
Around Corbets Tey: Hacton Hamlet
The populous Upminster hamlet of Hacton seems to be one of three clusters of medieval settlement in the parish, the other two being the village centre and Corbets Tey. The area was to the west of the Gaynes manor estate … Continue reading
Upminster Common Revealed: Part 1 – Bird Lane and around Tylers Common
To the Victorian Census Enumerators the whole area to the north of Upminster parish – north of the line of what is now the A127, the Southend Arterial Road – was referred to as “Upminster Common”. In earlier times the … Continue reading
Upminster’s Remarkable Historian: T L Wilson (1833-1919)
How strange it seems today that a village carpenter, who died in relative poverty, devoted much of his life to documenting Upminster’s history through his books and scrapbook collections of local archives. That carpenter and local historian was Thomas Lewis … Continue reading
Old Upminster 