Agatha
spent her childhood days happily with her sister and brother,looked
after by a nanny at the family home ‘Ashfield’. Ashfield
a Victorian mansion with its large garden, and croquet lawn, was the
centre of her life for nearly 50 years. In 1962, Agatha learned that
‘ Ashfield’ was to be demolished, much to her dismay.Today
as one approaches the South Devon College from Barton, down Barton
Rd, just before the first building of the College on the left, stood
‘Ashfield’.
Agathas
horse riding expeditions through country lanes to Cockington village,
used to start as Agatha walked from Ashfield, to the riding stables.
They were to be found where the Torbay Constitutional Club now stands
at the junction of Lansdowne Lane and South Street, just down from
the Police Station.
Cockington Court a part Tudor Manor house which is set in acres of
woodland was owned by the Mallocks, friends of Agatha and her family.
She would often go there to participate in amateur dramatics.
Cockington Court today houses craft studios which are open to the
public. The crafts that included are working glass blowers, a blacksmith,
an artist, a quilter, jeweller, potter, calligrapher and an aromatherapist.
Some of the country lanes that Agatha used to ride through are still
there for all to enjoy and journey down on the way to Cockington Village.
The village of Cockington which is mentioned in the Doomsday Book
is still very quaint, with its thatched roofed cottages and the old
village stocks, and forge. The Countryside around Cockington is very
picturesque and unspoiled by modern life.
Whilst
young Agathas favourite pastimes included swimming, horse riding,
dancing , reading, and roller-skating. She regularly used to go to
the Princess Pier, where she would skate up and down the length of
the pier, and in the winter in the Concert Room at the end of the
Pier for 2d (4p). The Concert Room was sadly destroyed by fire in
1974.
Very near to the Pier are the Princess Gardens, so named after The
Princess Louise, one of Queen Victorias children who had made a visit
to Torquay in 1890. Prior to this the land had been marshland. Today
the gardens are laid out formally, with flowerbeds and lawns, fountains
and paths. This was the setting for a Scene in The ABC Murders, featuring
Hercule Poirot
Next
to the Princess Gardens stands the beautiful Georgian building The
Pavilion, which was a prominent social venue as far as music and concerts
were concerned. Agatha regularly attended concerts there. In fact
in January 1913 she went to the Pavilion with a young man which she
had met a few months earlier ,to hear music by Wagner. The young man
being Archie Christie. After the concert they went back to ‘Ashfield’,
and Archie proposed to Agatha. They married Christmas 1914. The Grand
Hotel was the splendid location of their honeymoon for just one night
with her first husband. He had come home on leave from his duties
as a Flight Commander in France and had five days before he was due
to return to France.
Agatha
was a good swimmer and used to like bathing at Beacon Cove, this was
the beach where, although usually quite safe, she nearly drowned.
Apparently there were unusual sea conditions that day. She was rescued
by a grumpy old man who used to be at hand in a boat should anyone
need to be rescued. Beacon Cove in Victorian times, used to be known
as the Ladies Bathing Cove, where Ladies should have had privacy when
bathing. However the “gentlemen” of the Torbay Yacht Club,
on numerous occasions it is rumoured, spent their time looking through
opera glasses to watch the ladies on the beach, hoping for a glimpse,
or two of what they shouldn’t see. The Torbay Yacht Club situated
on Beacon Terrace, and has a fine view of the Bay. Agathas father
himself was a member of the Yacht Club. Beacon Cove can be found down
steps on the right just past Living Coasts on Beacon Quay.
Going
on up the hill from Beacon Quay one can find the Imperial Hotel which
was the setting for Agatha Cristies thriller Peril at End House, Sleeping
Murder, The Body in the Library, and Sleeping Murder. Agatha visited
the Imperial Hotel socially for Dinner, Dances and Tea Dances. Nowadays
Non-residents are welcomed to the hotel to take afternoon tea, coffee
or an ,aperitif on the terrace just as Miss Marple would have done
whilst solving the mysteries.
In 1914 when the war broke out Torquay Town Hall was commandeered
into being a Red Cross hospital. Agatha who had taken her First Aid
and Nursing exams had passed and became a nurse tending the casualties
who were being brought back home injured from France.
In 1915 Agatha suffered a severe bout of the flu and was unable to
work as a nurse for nearly a month. When she was well and returned
she found that a new department had opened. The Dispensary. This is
where she worked for the next two years and gained all her knowledge
about poisons. The knowledge which she was able to use with authority
in her novels. Whilst working in the Dispensary which at times was
not very busy at all , Agatha started to write her first detective
story with the encouragement of her sister, and in 1921 The Mysterious
Affair at Styles was published, featuring Hercule Poirot. Agatha Christie
wrote more than 30 novels featuring Poirot. Amongst most popular were
“ The Murder of Roger Ackroyd ",”The Murder on the
Orient Express” and “ Death on the Nile”.
In
1927 Archie Christie asked for a divorce, having fallen in love with
another woman. Agatha already being upset by the death of her mother,
disappeared. The whole of England became wrapped up in the case of
the missing writer. After 11 days she eventually turned up, claiming
she had amnesia when having to explain to the police her disappearance.
Agatha
Christie had an interest in archaeology and whilst taking a break
in the Near East she visited an archaeological dig in Ur, where she
met the young archaeologist Max Mallowan and later married him in
1930. Agatha accompanied him on many of his expeditions to the Middle
East, which became the setting for many of her novels. She created
Miss Marple in 1930.
In
1938 Agatha moved to Greenway House with her second husband . It is
a beautiful Georgian House on the River Dart. It was requisitioned
in WWII by the US Navy but Agatha and her family returned there again
in 1945, and until she died in 1976.
Agatha was awarded the high honour of becoming Dame of the British
Empire in 1971.
An Agatha Christie Trail brochure can be obtained from the English
Riviera Tourist Board in Vaughan Parade ,Torquay , so that you may
visit the many places that have been mentioned here, and more.
Also there is a Tribute to Agatha Christie Room which can be found
at Torre Abbey,The King’s Drive,
Torquay.
