School

In 1927 nuns from the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary bought Hill Place for use as a convent, naming it the Convent of the Sacred Heart of Mary. Hence the school has been colloquially known as "Upminster Convent School". It was established as a small independent fee-paying day and boarding school called "Convent Collegiate School"^[2] catering for girls of all ages and boys up to the age of eight.^[3]

At the outbreak of World War II the school was evacuated to Chilton House in Buckinghamshire. The school premises suffered no damage during the Blitz despite its proximity to RAF Hornchurch. In 1946 after the war ended, teachers and pupils returned to London and classes resumed. With the advent of the tripartite system, Convent Collegiate became a voluntary aided secondary modern. It turned comprehensive in 1978 when the system was abolished. By then Sisters on staff included Sisters from other orders and the teachers were predominantly lay staff. The first lay headteacher was appointed in 1983.^[4]

Hill Place

Central to the property is a large Gothic house designed by architect W.G. Barlett, who had also remodelled St Laurence's Church nearby, during the 1870s. The house was Grade II listed.^[5] The house had an impressive entrance hall, with marble flooring, oak panelling and above the main staircaseuse a stained glass window designed by Edward Burne-Jones and made by William Morris.^[6]

The original Hill Place was built in 1790 and was part of James Esdaile's estate. In 1827 it was owned by Wasey Sterry and after his death a number of tenants before being bought by Temple Soanes in 1867. Soanes commissioned William Gibbs Bartlett to reconstruct the house, between 1871 and 1873, in the gothic style. In 1895 E.S. Woodiwiss bought the house and kept a private Zoo in the grounds. Following other owners the house was bought by the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary as a convent and Catholic girls school.^[7] A Georgian style chapel in red brick was built against the east end of Hill Place in 1935 and was demolished in the 1960s due to structural problems following subsidence.^[3]

In July 2013 the property was put up for sale by the Trustee.^[8]

The Old Chapel

The Old Chapel was designed and built by Samuel Hammond and opened in June 1800 as an alternative place of worship for Protestant Dissenters. This group were known as ‘Dissenters’ because they moved away from the established church. partly due to a dispute over tithe payments to the parish church, St Laurence, to fund its upkeep. The gallery was enlarged in 1803 to contain more seating. In 1827 the building was extended and a vestry added. In 1873 the building was extensively refurbished which included heating, gas lighting and a new pulpit. The congregation of the Old Chapel grew steadily throughout the Victorian era and in 1911 as Upminster grew as a garden suburb led the increasing number of worshippers move to new premises; Trinity Church on Station Road.

Another Christian group, the Plymouth Brethren, bought the Chapel for £400 and worshipped from there from 1911 to 1988. The building was listed Grade II in 1979.^[9][10]

The trusteeship of the Chapel passed to the Havering Christian Fellowship in 1992.

The Parent Teacher and Friends Association of the school purchased the Chapel in 2005 and with a grant in 2007 of £670,800 from the Heritage Lottery Fund and over £390,000 from others the building which had been on English Heritage's "At Risk" Register since 1991^[11] was restored to include toilets, a kitchen and meeting spaces and the chapel will be put to use as a heritage centre to showcase the chapel's history and its place in the history of Upminster.^[12]

In 2012, construction workers doing restoration works at the Old Chapel dug up 24 unexploded shells and bombs (dubbed by students and staff, "The SHOM Bombs") on the compound in the space of three weeks. Historians later identified them as those from the Blitz of World War II and hypothesised that they had been buried there by the military with intent of disposal.^[13]