A blue plaque is a sign which shows where famous people lived or where famous events happened.

Image by Flickr user flem007_uk and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence.

The following people or places all have blue plaques…

Images by Flickr users wallyg, flem007_uk, wallyg, cookipediachef, chrisjohnbeckett, flem007_uk, wallyg and World of Oddy, all licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence.

You are going to use commemorative plaques to find out about famous people or events which occurred in your local area in the past.

Log on to the website www.waymarking.com/

Hit the ‘search’ button and it will tell you all of the blue plaques within 100 miles of your school.

On a sketch map of the local area, or on Google Earth, you should mark on your map the location of any blue plaques – you can do this with a blue blob, a sticker, or an electronic placemark. Don’t forget to write the name of the person and their dates on your map. You could do this in a key.

If you want to investigate further, you can write the biography of a person featured on one of the blue plaques.

Enter ‘blue plaques’ into the waymark box…

…and your town or postcode into the location box.