A cottage, once lived in by an environmentalist, explorer and adventurer has been given a prestigious blue plaque.

The latest, and 48th plaque, was installed at Walnut Cottage, Stony Path, Loughton at the end of July, to celebrate Millican Dalton – Environmentalist and “Professor of Adventure”.

During the Covid pandemic, one of the few events Loughton Town Council has been able to continue with, is its scheme to highlight notable buildings or their previous inhabitants, installing heritage plaques around the Town and informing current Loughton residents of the rich history on our doorstep.

The latest, and 48th plaque, was installed at Walnut Cottage, Stony Path at the end of July, to celebrate Millican Dalton – Environmentalist and “Professor of Adventure.”

Millican Dalton was born to a Quaker family in Nenthead, Alston, Cumberland, on 20 April 1867. At age 7 his family relocated to Essex, where he enjoyed being out in the wild, experiencing adventures. As a young man he worked in the City as an insurance clerk, and lived at Walnut Cottage, although apparently spent much of his time sleeping under canvas in the garden.

Aged 36, Millican found the lure of the wild - or the tedium of the office - too much and decided to leave Loughton and head off to Borrowdale in the Lake District in pursuit of his life of adventure.

It was here that he enjoyed his simpler life of self-sufficiency, living in a cave during the warmer months, located on the eastern flank of Castle Crag, known now as Millican Dalton’s Cave.

Somewhat ahead of his time, he was a vegetarian, pacifist and teetotaller, who offered his services as a climbing guide to earn a small income to live off and adopted the self-styled moniker “Professor of Adventure” . He lived in his cave for almost fifty years, carving into it his epitaph, which reads ‘Don’t waste words, jump to conclusions.’ In the winter of 1946-47 Dalton’s hut, in Bucks, burnt down whereby he resorted to living in a tent. Sadly this proved too much for a man of his age and frailty, and he contracted pneumonia from which he died in Amersham Hospital on 5 February 1947, aged 79