Little Cornwall

Notable people

• Dick Turpin, who had a robber’s lair in the forest nearby and who traded in stolen venison, known locally as ‘black mutton’ ;
• Mary Anne Clarke, actress and mistress of Frederick, Duke of York;
• Thomas Southwood Smith, medical pioneer and Unitarian minister, lived in Woodbury Hill;
• William Bridges Adams, railway pioneer who invented the railway fishplate and credited with the original idea for the Crystal Palace;
• 'Old' Tom Willingale, defender of Epping Forest and loppers' rights, lived in Baldwyns Cottages ;
• Sarah Flower Adams, wife of W B Adams, poet and hymn writer who wrote ‘Nearer My God to Thee’;
• Robert Hunter, lexicographer and philanthropist;
• Millican Dalton, nicknamed the ‘Professor of Adventure’, pioneering outdoor enthusiast, mountaineer and founder of the Camping Club;
• Oswald Silberrad, the research chemist. Barnes Wallis worked at his laboratory at Dryads' Hall;
• Una Lucy Silberrad, novelist, lived at Buckhurst Hill, but also had a cottage on School Green, Staples Road;
• Fred Stoker, horticulturalist of international repute, lived at 'The Summit', Baldwins Hill
• Sir Jacob Epstein, sculptor and painter, lived in Baldwins Hill and created many of his most famous works there;
• Doris and Muriel Lester, philanthropists and pacifist sisters who founded Kingsley Hall community centre in London’s East End;
• Ken Campbell, writer, actor and theatre director, lived in Baldwins Hill in a Victorian wooden chalet locally known as the 'Swiss Cottage';
• Geoffrey Campbell, business consultant, born at No. 35 Wroths Path, died in the September 11, 2001 attacks; he was attending a meeting at the World Trade Center.
• Ruth Rendell, who lived on the edge of the area she often described as Little Cornwall, in Millsmead Way, where there is a blue plaque to her.