132 THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
retcor, the Rev. P. M. Holden. Some notes on the parish and church were here
read by Mr. Crouch, who said that although the railway had now been opened for
about three years, only four new houses had been built, and that the village still
retained its pleasant and picturesque appearance, with fine and substantial
residences and farmhouses, some very ancient and quaint, and formed indeed a
good type of rural Essex in the olden days. It has been supposed that the British
trackway between London and Camulodunon, the capital of the Trinobantes,
passed through this village and Hornchurch.1
The parish is long and straggling, like so many on the margin of the Thames,
being about six miles long from north to south, and scarcely a mile in width. For
a long distance on the west it is bounded by the pretty Ingrebourne Brook, which
has its outlet in Rainham Creek. In the southern part of the parish was Chafford
(Chad's-ford) Heath which gave its name to the Hundred, but this is now under
cultivation.
The Park of Stubbers, the residence of our late member Colonel Russell (nee
Champion Branfill) follows the line of the boundary, but is in North Ockendon
parish.'-
In the northern portion beyond Upminster Hall lies the common, and at the
north-east corner near Tyler's Hall is (or was formerly) a Mineral Spring, which
is known to but few, if indeed the exact site can now be traced. Mr. Wilson
says of it in his "History and Topography of Upminster" that it probably never
obtained high repute from want of patrons, although it was mentioned by Dr.
Derham and several old writers. "Allen recommended it for 'agues and dropsies,
the common diseases of the county ; and the salt of these waters may be conveyed
to any distance and taken with as much benefit as on the spot.' This spring was
cleaned out and enclosed in 1734, by Champion Branfill, Esq., of Upminster Hall,
Lord of the Manor in which the spring was situate, and was kept so for some
years. A writer, speaking of this spring in 1834, 100 years after it was enclosed,
says, 'Many persons now living recollect its being enclosed, but it is now unen-
closed, and nearly filled with mud, which, and the water, are both of a most nauseous
smell, but tasteless. Some bricks lately taken out are turned black to the middle
of them ; the smell strongly resembles that issuing from a smith's trough in
which hot iron is plunged ; this probably is testimony of its mineral qualities.' "
The water has never been properly analyzed, but it was said to contain magnesium
sulphate and sodium chloride and, of course, iron from the decomposed pyrites in
the London Clay.
Upminster Church, dedicated to St. Lawrence, was rebuilt in 1861, on the
original plan, with nave and chancel separated from the north aisle and
chapel by pointed arches and four-clustered pillars, which are original work
belonging to the old church; as is likewise the tower, which opens into
the nave by a large arch. The North or Gaines Chapel was a charity
founded by Sir John Engaine (or D'Engaine) circa 1242. In later times
it was called by its present title, St. Mary's Chapel. It is divided from the
north aisle by a carved oak perpendicular screen (temp. Henry VI.) and was
1 This statement appears to be unsupported by facts. Mr. Flaxman Spurrell; who is intimately
acquainted with the district, and who surveyed it in 1865, and since, from an antiquarian and
geological point of view, found no evidence of a British or Pre-Roman trackway which could be
laid down.—Ed.
1 Colonel Russell died on May 16th, 1887. An obituary notice of him will be found in the
Essex Naturalist (vol. i., page 139). It may be well to mention that Prof. Meldola is preparing
a notice of Col. Russell's important contributions to photography, which will be read at one
of the autumnal meetings of the Club.—Ed.