There are local heroes, deserving of a blue plaque, says BOB OGLEY.

I understand the National Trust, under director-general Dame Helen Ghosh, has been examining ways to save the famous blue plaque scheme, following the news English Heritage does not have the resources to carry it on.

Ivo Dawnay, London director of the trust, said: “It is a complex issue deciding who deserves to be honoured and there are huge sums of money involved but it is of great benefit to London.”

There are more than 870 blue plaques in London and each one costs an average of £965.

Those outside London are historically issued by local councils, societies or companies to emulate the style and function of the plaques issued by English Heritage.

The scheme was started many years ago by the Royal Society of Arts, then London County Council and later by the GLC.

There are numerous blue plaques in our area of metropolitan Kent showing where great figures from the past once lived or worked.

Many of them are in the Bromley borough and one of the most recognised is in the High Street – HG Wells (1866-1946) novelist and pioneer of science fiction – lived here. His plaque not only celebrates his connection with this corner of Bromley but it transforms a pile of bricks and mortar into living history.

This is where Wells spent his formative years. It is where he experienced lower middle-class life, which he later used as a basis for a series of stirring novels.

In our circulation area there are blue plaques for such national personalities as Enid Blyton (Shortlands), Richmal Crompton (Bromley Common), WG Grace (Eltham) and William Willett (Petts Wood), the man who introduced daylight saving to England.

Sir John Lubbock lived at High Elms, Keston. He gave us those extra bank holidays and became the darling of the working classes.

William Pitt lived at Holwood House, Keston, and it was in the grounds of that house where he sat under an oak tree with William Wilberforce and discussed the bill to abolish slavery.

Frank Bourne, the last survivor of the defence of Rorke’s Drift, lived in Beckenham.

Harold Bride, a radio operator aboard the Titanic, lived in Shortlands and spent many years giving after-dinner talks about his dramatic role in the sinking.

However, there are a few lesser-known characters whose feats have earned a blue plaque and, in my column in two weeks’ time, I will mention their extraordinary contributions to our history.

For example, Brass Crosby lived at Court Lodge, Chelsfield.

Who? I hear you say. Well, he was Lord Mayor of London, chief magistrate of the City who endured a famous battle in the House of Commons in 1771 over the publication of parliamentary reports, which is reputedly responsible for the popular saying “as bold as Brass”.