| 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 Agatha's 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. |
