A TOWN wide, month long festival begins on Friday.

At 7.30pm, a quiz night in aid of Community First Responders will be held at Loughton Cricket Club on The Uplands, marking the start of 2018's Loughton Festival.

The jam-packed programme swings into action a week later with a talk by Helen Gibson about Hugh Myddelton, an entrepreneur best remembered as the driving force behind the construction of the New River, an ambitious engineering project to bring clean water from the River Lea in Hertfordshire to New River Head, London.

The talk starts at 8pm at St Michael's Church, Roding Road and costs £2.50.

The next day at 7pm award winning storyteller Robert Crighton will read two detective stories written by local author Arthur Morrison at the Loughton Baptist Church, High Road.

Arthur Morrison lived in Salcombe House 1890s, very close to where the Baptist Church stands now, and wrote his best selling novel 'A Child of the Jago' there.

The stories will introduce the audience to two of Morrison's detectives: Martin Hewitt, an undemonstrative and jovial man as intuitive as Sherlock Holmes, and Mr Dorrington, a hustler, con man and thief who uses his detective skills to make as much money as possible, frequently at the expense of his clients.

Tickets cost £5.

On April 29 at 10.30am the annual Town Mayor's Charity Fun Run will kick off from Roding Valley Recreation Ground at 9.30am, with a warm up session at 10.15am and starting pistol at 10.30am.

The 4k route is suitable for all ages and abilities, with trophies for category winners.

Entry is £10 per person.

To find out about more events visit Loughton or Debden Library or www.loughtonfestival.org