St. Mary Mead

St. Mary Mead was the fictional village created by popular crime fiction author Dame Agatha Christie.

The quaint, sleepy village was home to the renowned detective spinster Miss Jane Marple. 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.

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 Downshire has become Radfordshire. In the BBC Miss Marple TV adaptation of Nemesis, a letter from Mr Rafiel's solicitors indicate that St Mary Mead is located in the (also) fictional county of Middleshire.

In the Hercule Poirot novel The Mystery of the Blue Train, the book's protagonist Katherine Grey comes from St. Mary Mead. The St. Mary Mead of Katherine Grey, however, was in Kent, therefore not connected with Miss Marple's village.

Location
Nemesis gives fairly detailed descriptions of the location of St Mary Mead, some contradictory:
 * it is 25 miles from London and halfway between Market Basing (which appears as a name of a town in many of Agatha Christie's novels and short stories) and Loomouth. (chapter 9)
 * not very far from the town of Much Benham, 12 miles from the fashionable seaside resort of Danemouth, and also 12 miles from the coastal town of Loomouth. (chapter 7)
 * about 25 miles from Alton in Hampshire which is near Haslemere. (chapter 4)

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 railway station, indicating a location west of London (for example in 4.50 from Paddington.

It has been suggested that Market Basing is Basingstoke and Danemouth is Bournemouth so this would place St. Mary Mead in Hampshire. In the BBC Miss Marple television adaptations the Hampshire village of Nether Wallop was used as the setting for St. Mary Mead. Brackhampton could be Bracknell which is just north of Basingstoke (Market Basing).

Description
Before the Second World War, the village itself was not particularly large. The only road of significance passing through the village was High Street. Here were the well-established purveyances of Mr Petherick, the solicitor; Mrs. Jamieson, the hairdressers; Mr Toms' basket-weavers; The Blue Boar Pub; and Mr. Baker's grocery shop. The little-trafficked railway station, featured in the book The Murder at the Vicarage is also located at the very end of High Street. By the time of the novel 4.50 from Paddington the station appears to have closed as Mrs MacGillycuddy on her way to Miss Marple leaves her train at Milchester.

Then, slightly further up Lansham Road, was the fine Victorian structure of Gossington Hall. Until the 1950s, this was home to the charming Colonel Arthur Bantry and his wife Dolly (Miss Marple's best friends in the village). However, after Colonel Bantry's death, Mrs. Bantry sold the estate, but continued to live on in the grounds in the East Lodge. The Hall was later after one or two changes of ownership purchased by the film star Marina Gregg.

At the other end of Lansham Road, a small 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 Caroline Weatherby, who died some time before 1960. The second cottage belonged to Amanda Hartnell, a proud, decent woman with a deep voice. She continued to live in the village up to the end of the '60s. The last cottage, Danemead, belonged to Jane Marple, the famous spinster who solved countless cases between 1930 and 1976. The Post Office, and the dressmakers belonging to Miss Politt, are located in front of the Lane.

The centre of the village was the Vicarage, the very grand Victorian structure at the end of the Lane. The Vicarage was home to The Reverend Leonard Clement and his pretty young wife, Griselda, until 1957, when Mr Clement died. Mrs. Clement continued to live on at the Vicarage.

Beyond the Vicarage were two more houses. The first was the residence of the village GP, Dr Haydock. He continued to live on in the village beyond 1960. The other cottage was much larger than Dr. Haydock's. It belonged to Mrs. Martha Price-Ridley, a rich and dictatorial widow, and the most vicious gossip in the town.

There was also a large estate, Old Hall, belonging to the odious local magistrate, Colonel Lucius Protheroe. He was murdered in 1930 in Mr Clement's study in the Vicarage. After the war, the mansion 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, and a robbery was later committed by the Skinner sisters.

Finally, just beyond the home of the dreaded Price-Ridley (as she is known by other villagers) 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 tarmacked over; and a new housing estate was built upon it. This was referred to as The Development by the villagers who survived the war. It was inhabited by such residents as the irritating Heather Badcock and the helpful Cherry Baker.

St. Mary Mead is modeled on any quintessentially English country village one can visit today.

Villagers

 * Arthur Badcock
 * Heather Badcock
 * Mr Badger (chemist, before The Body in the Library)
 * Mrs Badger (mentioned in The Herb of Death)
 * Mr Bailey
 * Cherry Baker
 * Jim Baker
 * Colonel Arthur Bantry
 * Dolly Bantry
 * Mr Barnes (grocer)
 * Mr Blade? (postman)
 * Mrs Blade (postmistress)
 * Basil Blake
 * Joe Bucknell (landlord of the Blue Boar)
 * Miss Bucknell (his daughter)
 * Mr Cargill (builder)
 * Mr Cherubim (chemist)
 * Mrs Cherubim
 * Dennis Clement (nephew of Reverend Clement)
 * Griselda Clement
 * The Reverend Leonard Clement
 * Mr Cray (son of Mrs Cray)
 * Mrs Cray (owns the wool shop)
 * Joan Croft
 * Mr Eade (bank manager, before 4.50 from Paddington)
 * Thomas Eade (son of Mr Eade)
 * Nurse Ellerton (worked in St. Mary Mead, mentioned in A Murder is Announced)
 * Mr Emmett (bank manager, before A Pocket Full of Rye)
 * Mrs Emmett (his wife)
 * Rose Emmott (daughter of Tom Emmott)
 * Tom Emmott (landlord of the Blue Boar, after Joe Bucknell)
 * Mr Footit (butcher, at the time of the death of Rose Emmott)
 * Ted Gerard
 * Mr Giles (farmer)
 * Mr Golden (baker)
 * Jessie Golden (daughter of Mr Golden)
 * Miss Amanda Hartnell
 * Dr Haydock (physician)
 * Mr Hodgson (bank manager, around the time of A Murder is Announced)
 * Constable Hurst (police, around the time of The Murder at the Vicarage)
 * Inch (taxi driver)
 * Fred Jackson (working at the fishmongers, around the time of The Murder at the Vicarage)
 * Mrs Jameson (hairdresser, around the time of The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side)
 * Mr Jenkins (automobile mechanic)
 * Mrs Lestrange (she lived in a cottage named Little Gates)
 * Longdon (draper)
 * Miss Jane Marple (she lives in a cottage named Danemead)
 * Mr Murdoch (butcher, mentioned in A Caribbean Mystery)
 * Constable Palk (police, around the time of Tape-Measure Murder and The Body in the Library)
 * Mrs Partridge
 * Mr Petherick SR. (solicitor)
 * Mr Petherick JR. (solicitor)
 * Miss Politt (dressmaker)
 * Mrs Martha Price-Ridley
 * Mrs Anne Protheroe
 * Miss Lettice Protheroe
 * Colonel Lucius Protheroe
 * Mrs Pusey (runs the paper shop)
 * Dr Quinton (veterinarian)
 * Lawrence Redding (artist)
 * Mr Spenlow (Laburnum Cottage)
 * Mrs Spenlow
 * Rex Sandford (architect)
 * Fred Tyler (working at the fishmongers, around A Murder is Announced)
 * Major Vaughan (he lived in a cottage named The Larches)
 * Miss Caroline Weatherby
 * Mr Wells (solicitor, mentioned in 4.50 from Paddington)
 * Ronnie Wells (The son of Mr Wells)
 * Colonel Wright (he lived in a cottage named Simla Lodge)
 * Mrs Toomie
 * Mrs MacArthur

Unnamed villagers

 * An Anglo-Indian Colonel (he lived at Little Gates prior to Mrs Lestrange)
 * A fishmonger
 * Taxi drivers after Inch

Locations in St Mary Mead

 * Halletts - Mentioned in The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side. From context, probably a kitchenware or general store.
 * Lower Farm - there are two mentions in two books and it is not clear if they are the same place.
 * Railway station
 * The Blue Boar inn