In Epping, blue plaques honour figures such as pioneering Impressionist painter Lucien Pissarro at 44 Hemnall Street, naturalist and lepidopterist Henry Doubleday in Buttercross Lane, and wartime prime minister Winston Churchill MP on Marks & Spencer in the High Street.
Others include landowners, employers and philanthropists the Silley Family at 1 Theydon Grove, historian and author Sidney Hills at 45 High Street, jurist Sir William Addison on the old courthouse, and water sanitation pioneer Dr Joseph Clegg on Epping Water Tower.
The list continues with Brambly Hedge writer Jill Barklem in Church Hill, Epping’s Charter Market on Aves Optometrist, local benefactor Ernest Wythes on Ernest Wythes House, and St Margaret’s Hospital for its work on the Epping jaundice outbreak.
Waltham Abbey’s plaques commemorate industrialist and entrepreneur Philippa Walton in the grounds of the Royal Gunpowder Mills, Book of Martyrs author John Foxe in Foxe’s Parade, and Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy, on the Town Hall.
Other notable plaques include those for architect and local benefactor Thomas Leverton and the Moot Hall location plaque in Market Place on Maze Restobar/former Green Dragon.
In Ongar, Father Thomas Byles, who died assisting and comforting passengers during the sinking of the Titanic, is commemorated at Ongar Station, while Budworth Hall has a plaque for the remodelling of the clock in celebration of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002.
The Zinc Arts Building has a plaque commemorating its former uses as the Hackney Children’s Home School and Great Stoney School.
Jane Taylor, author of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, is commemorated on a house in Castle Street, and missionary and explorer David Livingstone is remembered on the wall of Livingstone Cottages in the High Street.
The Tolpuddle Martyrs, James Loveless, George Loveless, and James Brine, are commemorated on Tudor Cottage.
Loughton boasts a number of blue plaques, including one for sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein on Deerhurst, 50 Baldwins Hill, and lexicographer and naturalist The Rev Robert Hunter on Forest Villa, 7 Staples Road.
Other notable plaques include those for music hall artistJosé (Josephine) Collins, short story writer William Wymark Jacobs, inventor and polemicist William Bridges Adams, and his wife Sarah Flower Adams, a hymnodist and poet.
The Lopping Hall, built in 1883 out of compensation for the loss of lopping rights in Epping Forest, also has a plaque, as does the site of a bookshop run by Sir jurist William Addison, the home of artist John Strevens, and the home of Captain Richard Stannard VC.
The County High School for Girls, which opened in 1908, is commemorated on Roding Valley High School, as is children’s author Winifred Darch.
Pte Sidney Godley VC, awarded the first VC of the Great War, is remembered on 164 Torrington Drive, and author Arthur Morrison is commemorated on 70 High Road.
Historian William Chapman Waller is remembered on 11 Wallers Hoppett, and suffragette Ethel Haslam is commemorated on 3 Spareleaze Hill.
Postage stamp pioneers Sir Rowland Hill and Francis Worrall Stevens are commemorated on The Hollies, 11 Albion Hill.
Loughton also remembers Rupert Arnold Brabner, DSO, DSC, MP, and his wife Jean Gwenneth Brabner, on 47 Spareleaze Hill, and Donald W Gillingham, author of Unto the Fields, on 28 Roding Road.
Architect Sir Frank Baines KCVO, is remembered on 41 The Uplands, and Sir Hugh Cairns, neurosurgeon and advocate of crash helmets, is commemorated on Woodcroft School, Whitakers Way.
Artist William Brown Macdougall and his wife, author Margaret Armour, are remembered on Elm Cottage, Debden Road.
Braeside, which served as the Loughton Red Cross Military Hospital, has a plaque, as does the home of Ralph Russell, a leading Western Urdu scholar.
Ken Campbell, actor, director, and playwright, is remembered on Swiss Cottage, 40 Baldwins Hill, and Margaret Walker, founder of East 15 Acting School, is commemorated on East 15 Acting School.
Author Ruth Rendell is remembered on 45 Millsmead Way, and the former Loughton Bus garage is commemorated on Homebase, 140 Church Hill.
The site of the Oriolet Fruitarian Hospital and its director Dr Josiah Oldfield is commemorated on 91 Staples Road, as is Barbara Harmer, the first woman supersonic airline pilot.
Lionel Lord Murray of Epping Forest, trade unionist, is remembered on 29 The Crescent, Loughton, and Rev William Dawson is commemorated on The Loughton Club.
Writer Rudyard Kipling, his sister Alice, and politician Stanley Baldwin are remembered on Goldings Manor Cottage, 3 Stanmore Way, and Peter Abrahams, author and journalist, is commemorated on 37 Jessel Drive.
Millican Dalton, environmentalist and ‘Professor of Adventure’, is remembered on Walnut Cottage, 18 Stony Path, and Charles Frederick Clark, industrialist and philanthropist, is commemorated on 8 Connaught Avenue.
Finally, Diana Southwood Kennedy MBE, Mexican food and culture expert, is remembered on 19 York Hill.
