"Devonshire" (Baghdad)

In the novel They Came to Baghdad, Edward Goring takes Victoria Jones for an excursion to "Devonshire". It is an undeveloped rural area near Baghdad to the south. At "Devonshire", they went through an area of palm groves and over irrigation bridges and finally reached a copse pierced by irrigation streams, full of blossoming almond and apricot trees. It was an idyllic spot which Victoria observed was like being back in England in Spring.

As surprising as it may seem, "Devonshire" actually existed. An ornithologist, S. Marchant, writing in 1962, wrote about Devonshire. He reported that he conducted his observations at "Jadriya; which, variously known as Karradah Sharqiyah or 'Devonshire' among English residents of Baghdad...." Devonshire lies within the meander of the Tigris at the south end of the city. According to Marchant, in 1960 and 1961 this was an agricultural area, "a relatively undisturbed area of market gardens, surrounding a mixed orchard of mulberries, apricots, apples and date palms, containing also areas of unmixed tamarisk or Euphrates poplar. Crops of broad beans, roots, wheat, pepper, cotton, cucumbers, melons, tomatoes and other vegetables were grown in the fields."

Unfortunately, Marchant also notes that in "1962 a start was made to build the new Baghdad University in the centre of this area and, though only local upheavals had occurred up to the time I left...." Today the area is occupied mainly by the campus of Baghdad University and other areas by upper class housing.