The church of St Laurence, Upminster, is the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

parish church in

Upminster Upminster is a suburb, suburban town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Havering. Located east-northeast of Charing Cross, it is one of the district centres identified for development in the London Plan. Historically a rural ...

, England. It is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. It is the historic minster or church from which Upminster derives its name, meaning 'upper church', probably signifying 'church on higher ground'. The place-name is first attested as 'Upmynster' in 1062, and appears as 'Upmunstra' in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086.

History

Alice Perrers Alice Perrers, also known as Alice de Windsor (circa 1348 –1400) was an English and British royal mistress, English royal mistress, lover of Edward III of England, Edward III, Monarchy of the United Kingdom, King of England. As a result o ...

, mistress of King

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...

, was buried in the church or churchyard in 1400. There is no memorial to mark her grave. She had three illegitimate children by the king, and later lived and died in the manor of

Gaynes Upminster is a suburban town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Havering. Located east-northeast of Charing Cross, it is one of the district centres identified for development in the London Plan. Historically a rural vill ...

in Upminster. The tower of St Laurence's was instrumental in the first accurate measurement of the

speed of sound The speed of sound is the distance travelled per unit of time by a sound wave as it propagates through an elastic medium. At , the speed of sound in air is about , or one kilometre in or one mile in . It depends strongly on temperature as w ...

by Rev

William Derham William Derham FRS (26 November 16575 April 1735)Smolenaars, Marja.Derham, William (1657–1735), ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Accessed 26 May 2007. was an English clergyman, natural theologian, na ...

, who was also buried in the church or churchyard and who also, by his own wish, has no memorial.

Description

The church is a good example of 13th-century construction. The tower dates from this period, and is rubble-walled, with

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es at the foot, and a leaded and shingled

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

, typical of Essex. The church was largely rebuilt in 1862–1863 by W. Gibbs Bartleet. Further rebuilding took place in 1928, when the original

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

became part of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, and the new choir and sanctuary were built, by Sir Charles Nicholson. Nicholson also built the current south chapel and Lady Chapel, on the north side. The

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

is by Violet Pinwill of Devon. The

baptismal font A baptismal font is an article of church furniture used for baptism. Aspersion and affusion fonts The fonts of many Christian denominations are for baptisms using a non-immersive method, such as aspersion (sprinkling) or affusion (pouring). ...

is 15th-century, and came from Upminster Hill Chapel. The monuments include those of the Branfills of

Upminster Hall Upminster Hall is a historic house in Upminster, London, England. It is now the clubhouse of the Upminster Golf Club. History King Harold II gave the manor of Upminster Hall to the abbots of Waltham Abbey in around the year 1050. The present hous ...

, and the Esdailes of Gaynes. The churchyard contains

war graves War is an intense armed conflict between State (polity), states, governments, Society, societies, or paramilitary groups such as Mercenary, mercenaries, Insurgency, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violenc ...

of six service personnel of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

.
CWGC Cemetery Report, details from casualty record.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Upminster Saint Laurence Upminster Church of England church buildings in the London Borough of Havering 13th-century church buildings in England Grade I listed churches in London History of the London Borough of Havering