In the unpublished short story The Incident of the Dog's Ball, Little Hemel is a village in Kent. Laburnums, the home of Matilda Wheeler, is located in Little Hemel.
Agatha Christie later expanded the short story into the full length novel Dumb Witness, and the setting was changed to the town of Market Basing. However a number of echoes of the old setting remained. In both locations, there is a George Inn. Market Basing also had a place called "Hemel End" and "Hemel Down" is three miles away.