A town in Havering was named after a church where the speed of sound was first accurately calculated.
This week, the Recorder is looking back at the history of Upminster - one of the borough's main town centres where landmark scientific experiments took place.
The name Upminster was first recorded in 1062 as 'Upmynstre' and later in the Domesday Book as 'Upmunstra', meaning 'a large church on high ground' in Old English.
This is believed to refer to St Laurence Church, which was high in relation to the valley of the River Ingrebourne.
It was here where the speed of sound is said to have been first accurately calculated in 1709 by Reverend William Derham- a clergyman, philosopher and scientist - who was able to improve on Isaac Newton's estimates.
He used a telescope from the tower of the church to observe a shotgun being fired in the distance, and then measured the time until he heard it firing with a half-second pendulum.
Other landmarks in the town include the Grade II listed Upminster Windmill, built more than 200 years ago and remaining "one of the finest" in the country, according to its website.
James Nokes, who moved to Upminster from the nearby village of Stifford in 1793, started building the windmill to produce flour at Hunts Farm in 1803 and completed it in two years.
Even older than the windmill is Upminster Tithe Barn, constructed using an oak tree felled between 1420 and 1440, and surviving as a rare example of medieval agricultural architecture.
Medieval settlement focused around St Laurence Church, nearby Hacton and Corbets Tey, with Upminster remaining rural focused on farming until the late 19th century.
It was at this point, when Upminster station opened in 1885, that there was hope the town would become a "place of residence for City men".
From 1906 developer W. P. Griggs laid out the Upminster Hall Estate as a "garden suburb", driving interwar suburban housebuilding and reshaping the village into the town it is today.
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