Essex Women's Commemoration Project

The Essex Women's Commemoration Project (EWCP) is an English scheme to erect memorial plaques to honour notable women residents of places in the county of Essex. By the end of 2023, the project had erected 29 plaques.

History
The project was set up by the Lord-Lieutenant of Essex, Jennifer Tolhurst, in 2021, following an approach from Essex theatre director Graham Watts who wanted to mark the quatercentenary of the birth of playwright and philosopher Margaret Cavendish, born in Colchester in 1623. Graham Watts joined Julia Abel Smith, James Bettley, Roy Clare and Juliet Townsend to form the EWCP team with the aim of identifying distinguished Essex women who had not received the public recognition it was felt they deserved.

The team used inclusion in the online Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as the principal criterion for the erection of a blue plaque on a building or nearby location associated with the subject. A shortlist of 72 women was drawn up and interested organisations, such as local councils and societies, were approached and asked whether they would like to take up the idea of erecting a plaque in their community. Organisations who worked with EWCP include Basildon Heritage, Chelmsford City Council, Colchester Civic Society, Essex Gardens Trust, the Federation of Essex Women's Institutes, the Maldon Society, the Newport Local History Group, and the Essex and South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership.

The first plaque, to Margaret Cavendish, was unveiled by Tolhurst on 22 September 2021.

Plaques
As of 31 December 2023, 29 plaques had been installed with the support of the EWCP:


 * Rose Allin, one of the Colchester Martyrs (Great Bentley)
 * Ada Andrews (Canvey Island)
 * Amy Bull (Little Baddow)
 * Margaret Cavendish (Colchester)
 * Beth Chatto (Beth Chatto Gardens, Elmstead Market)
 * Joanna Constantinidis (Chelmsford)
 * Katherine 'Mina' Courtauld (Colne Engaine)
 * Agnes Dawson (Newport)
 * Princess Dinubolu (Southend-on-Sea)
 * Joyce Frankland (Newport)
 * Gwynneth Holt and Thomas Huxley-Jones (Chelmsford)
 * Mary Honywood (Marks Hall)
 * Clara James (Canvey Island)
 * Hannah Lake (Wickford)
 * Catherine Marsh (Colchester)
 * Adele Meyer (Newport)
 * Jane Packer (Chadwell St Mary)
 * Edith Pechey (Langham)
 * Vera Pemberton (Ingatestone)
 * Isabel Rawsthorne and Alan Rawsthorne (Little Sampford)
 * Helen Robinson (Hyde Hall, Rettendon)
 * Myra Sadd Brown (Maldon)
 * Nancy Tennant (Ugley)
 * Pamela Underwood (Beth Chatto Gardens, Elmstead Market)
 * Philippa Walton (Royal Gunpowder Mills, Waltham Abbey)
 * Marion Wilberforce (Wickford)
 * Ellen Willmott (Great Warley)
 * Hester Woodley (Little Parndon)
 * Hannah Woolley (Newport)

Plans are also advanced for plaques in Ingatestone to Dorothea and Madeleine Rock and Dorothy Wadham; and in Dedham to Alice Lee.

The project has also inspired other local initiatives, including a blue plaque to Rosemary Rutherford that was unveiled at St Mary's Church, Broomfield, in November 2023.