St Mary Mead
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St Mary Mead is a fictional village created by popular
crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professiona ...
author Dame
Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English people, English author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving ...
. The quaint, sleepy village was home to the renowned detective spinster
Miss Marple Miss Jane Marple is a fictional character in Agatha Christie's crime novels and short stories. Miss Marple lives in the village of St Mary Mead and acts as an amateur consulting detective. Often characterised as an elderly spinster, she is one ...
. However, Christie first described a village of that name prior to Marple's introduction, in the 1928
Hercule Poirot Hercule Poirot (, ) is a fictional Belgian detective created by the English writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is Christie's most famous and longest-running character, appearing in 33 novels, two plays (''Black Coffee (play), Black Coffee'' and '' ...
novel ''
The Mystery of the Blue Train ''The Mystery of the Blue Train'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the United Kingdom by William Collins & Sons on 29 March 1928 and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company later in ...
''. In that novel, St Mary Mead is home to the book's protagonist Katherine Grey. It is not the same village as Miss Marple's home, being in a different county. The village was first mentioned in a Miss Marple book in 1930, when it was the setting for the first Marple novel, ''
The Murder at the Vicarage ''The Murder at the Vicarage'' is a work of detective fiction by the British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in October 1930 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edi ...
''.


Location

Miss Marple's St Mary Mead is described in ''The Murder at the Vicarage'' as being in the fictional county of Downshire, but in the later novel ''
The Body in the Library ''The Body in the Library'' is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1942 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in May of the same year. The US edition retailed at ...
'' Downshire has become Radfordshire. In the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
Miss Marple TV adaptation of ''
Nemesis In ancient Greek religion and myth, Nemesis (; ) also called Rhamnousia (or Rhamnusia; ), was the goddess who personified retribution for the sin of hubris: arrogance before the gods. Etymology The name ''Nemesis'' is derived from the Greek ...
'', a letter from Mr Rafiel's solicitors indicate that St Mary Mead is located in the (also fictional) county of Middleshire. The St Mary Mead of Katherine Grey is in
Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
. Miss Marple lives in Danemead Cottage, the last cottage in Old Pasture Lane. Her telephone number is "three five" on a manual exchange. Miss Marple's phone number changes over the course of the movies. In 'The Body in The Library' her number is St Mary Mead 35. In Season 3 (The 4:50 From Paddington) her number is St Mary Mead 236 Once it has been fully established as Miss Marple's home village, St Mary Mead is supposed to be in
South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England that are in the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, top level category for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the nine counties of england, ...
, from London and 25 miles from Alton. It is just outside the town of Much Benham and is close to Market Basing (which appears as a name of a town in many of Agatha Christie's novels and short stories), from the fashionable seaside resort of Danemouth, and also from the coastal town of Loomouth. Using the distances from Alton and London gives a narrow possible location of a
Vesica Piscis The vesica piscis is a type of lens, a mathematical shape formed by the intersection of two disks with the same radius, intersecting in such a way that the center of each disk lies on the perimeter of the other. In Latin, "" literally means "bla ...
bounded by Winkfield, Bagshot, Peaslake, East Horsley, Byfleet and Windsor Great Park. This is inconsistent though with the references to the proximity of the coast as the coast is at least 25 miles from this area. Other towns said to be close by include Brackhampton, Medenham Wells, and Milchester. The neighbourhood of St Mary Mead is served by trains arriving at
Paddington Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough of the County of London, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed b ...
railway station, indicating a location west or south-west of London. It has been suggested that Market Basing is
Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is a town in Hampshire, situated in south-central England across a valley at the source of the River Loddon on the western edge of the North Downs. It is the largest settlement in Hampshire without city status in the United King ...
and Danemouth is
Bournemouth Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...
. In the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
Miss Marple television adaptations the
Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...
village of
Nether Wallop Nether Wallop is a village and civil parish in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England, northwest of Stockbridge, and southwest of Andover. Nether Wallop is the easternmost of the three villages collectively known as The Wallops, the ...
was used as the setting for St Mary Mead. Brackhampton could be
Bracknell Bracknell () is a town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, the westernmost area within the Greater London Built-up Area, Greater London Urban Area and the administrative centre of the borough of Bracknell Forest. It lies to the east of Re ...
, although this is 26 miles north of Basingstoke.


Description

Before the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the village was not particularly large. The only road of significance passing through it was the High Street. Here were the well-established establishments of Mr Petherick, the solicitor; Mrs Jamieson, the hairdresser; Mr Thomas's basket-weavers; the 'Blue Boar' pub; Mr Footit the butcher, Mr Jim Armstrong's dairy, Mr Berks the baker, and Mr Baker's grocery shop. The lightly trafficked railway station, featured in the book ''Murder at the Vicarage'', is also to be found at the very end of the High Street; although the station may have closed by the period of the novel '' 4.50 from Paddington'', as Mrs McGillicuddy has a taxi arranged for the from Milchester station to Miss Marple's house.''4.50 from Paddington'', chapter 1 Then, slightly further up Lansham Road, was the Victorian structure of Gossington Hall. Until the 1950s this was lived in by a retired soldier, Colonel Arthur Bantry, and his wife Mrs Dolly Bantry, Miss Marple's best friends in the village. However, after Colonel Bantry died, Mrs Bantry sold the estate, but continued to live in the grounds, in the East Lodge. After one or two changes of ownership, the Hall was later bought by the film star Marina Gregg. One mile down Lansham Road was a very modern cottage called Chatsworth, also known as the "Period Piece" and "Mr Booker's new house". It was bought in the early 1930s by Basil Blake, a member of the art department at Lemville film studios. It was also inhabited by Basil's wife, Dinah Lee, an actress. At the other end of Lansham Road, a small lane called Old Pasture Lane broke away from the main street. Nestled in this lane were three Queen Anne or Georgian houses, which belonged to three spinsters. The first house belonged to the long-nosed, gushing and excitable Miss Caroline Wetherby. The second house was that of Miss Amanda Hartnell, a proud, decent woman with a deep voice. The last cottage was called Danemead Cottage and belonged to Miss Jane Marple, the famous spinster who solved countless cases between 1930 and 1976. The Post Office, and the dressmaker's shop belonging to Mrs Politt, were located in front of the lane. At the centre of the village was the Vicarage, a very grand Victorian structure at the end of Old Pasture Lane. This was home to the Vicar, Leonard Clement, his young wife, Griselda, with their nephew, Dennis, and later with their two sons, Leonard and David. Near the gardens of the Vicarage was a back lane which led to a small cottage called Little Gates. Until 1930, it was inhabited by an Anglo-Indian colonel who moved away and briefly rented it out to Mrs Lestrange. Beyond the Vicarage were two more houses. The first was the residence of the village GP, Doctor Gerard Haydock. He continued to live on in the village beyond 1960. The other cottage was much larger than Dr Haydock's and belonged to Mrs Martha Price-Ridley, a rich and dictatorial widow, and the most vicious gossip of all the old ladies in the village. There was also a large estate, Old Hall, belonging to the despised local magistrate, Colonel Lucius Protheroe. He was murdered in 1930 in Mr Clement's study in the Vicarage. After his death, the house was turned into a block of flats, to the great disapproval of the villagers. The flats housed Mrs Carmichael, a rich and eccentric old lady who was bullied by her maid, the Larkins, two sisters by the name of Skinner, one of whom was a supposed hypochondriac, and a young married couple. A robbery was later committed by the Skinner sisters. Finally, just beyond the home of Mrs Price-Ridley was a small stream, leading to the fields of Farmer Giles. However, the Second World War took its toll on the village, and soon after the war Farmer Giles's fields were bought and a new housing estate was built. This was referred to as 'The Development' by the villagers who survived the war. A large hospital was also built nearby, staffed by many doctors and nurses. As well as this, there were some very large hotels and three film studios: Lenville, Elstree and Hellingforth.


References

{{Agatha Christie Fictional elements introduced in 1928 Fictional populated places in England Miss Marple