Nods to Winston Churchill can be seen throughout east London and Essex, but one tribute to him is yet to be seen. LARA KEAY finds out more.

EVEN 50 years after his death, Winston Churchill still has quite the presence in his old constituencies throughout east London and Essex.

As well as being Britain’s most famous prime minister, Churchill was MP for Epping between 1924 and 1945 and represented Woodford from 1945 until 1964.

Commemorative landmarks, statues and plaques can be found dedicated to him across the globe.

But there is one tribute to our late great leader that has not yet made it anywhere where the public can appreciate it, because its origins remain a complete mystery.

Peter Shorer was one of the most senior conservationists at the British Museum, entrusted with the delicate task of refurbishing and recreating some of the most precious artefacts in the country.

He perfected his art to such an extent that in 1969 the director of the museum allowed him to set up his own private business recreating historic jewellery, gold and silverware.

So when Mr Shorer died aged 86 in 2010, his son Michael took over the business and started looking through his collection of treasures at the family home in Newbury Park.

Around nine months into the search of his father’s “Aladdin’s cave” Mr Shorer Jr found the moulds for what looked like a giant medal with Churchill on one side and England’s rampant lion on the other.

The 58-year-old said: “It seems to be the first stages of a medal, so presumably someone asked my father to create a commemorative collector’s piece after Churchill died in 1965.

“Usually something like this would have been created large at first and then as you shrink it smaller and smaller, the detail gets more and more precise.”

“It’s such a magnificent piece, but we have absolutely no idea where it came from.”

After Mr Shorer found the 28cm plaques with no paperwork to explain their origins, he has spent the last three years trying to find out who commissioned them.

He said: “I have written to about a dozen different people, even one of Churchill’s relatives, but no one knows anything about it.

“I’ve spoken to The Churchill Society’s representatives in the UK, USA and Canada but they haven’t been able to find any trace of it in their records.”

“The order must have come from somewhere very high up, like a Government department, but that’s as far as we can guess.”

Mr Shorer is currently reproducing the “We shall never surrender” plaques in resin but wants them to be cast in solid bronze and displayed somewhere for the public to admire.

Waltham Abbey Historical Society (WAHS) volunteer Clive Simpson is working with the Shorer family to try to get the plaques put up somewhere in Churchill’s old constituency.

He said: “They were obviously meant to be on show, so my feeling is that they should be displayed somewhere he was MP for the best part of 40 years.”