Agatha Christie's Jewel on the Dart

In 1938, Mrs Max Mallowan (better known to avid readers worldwide as Agatha Christie) bought Greenway House for £6,000 – considerably less than the sum she expected to pay. Intended to be used as a family holiday home and summer residence, Agatha had visited Greenway with her mother as a child. Agatha later described the house as “the loveliest place in the world.”

Greenway House is situated in Devon, roughly between the towns of Totnes and Dartmouth, on the same idyllic stretch of the River Dart referred to by Queen Victoria as “the English Rhine.” The house is set back from the river, although a path from the southern end of the gardens leads to a boathouse and the shore.

Born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller in 1890.

Agatha lived in Torquay during her childhood. Ashfield House, the family home was unfortunately demolished to make way for a housing development, in what is now the Barton area of the town.

Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles appeared in 1920.

In 1926, Agatha disappeared for eleven days, causing a nationwide search and much speculation in the press. When Agatha was found she claimed to have had amnesia.

Agatha died in 1976. To date, she had sold more than two billion copies worldwide and been translated into more languages than any other author.

Agatha wrote many novels. Her best known characters were both detectives: Hercule Poirot, the fastidious Belgian super-sleuth and Miss Marple, a seemingly harmless old lady with an incisive mind.

Agatha also wrote collections of short stories and many plays, including The Mouse Trap and Witness for the Prosecution. Under the name of Mary Westmacott, she also published several romantic novels.

Entering the house for the first time, I am tempted to adopt the guise of Hercule Poirot and snoop around the place, expecting to discover a motive here, a red herring there, coming at the staff unawares with non-sequiturs and setting verbal traps. And voila! The mystery of Christie’s identity will be solved.

The National Trust could have done the same thing by turning Greenway House into an Agatha Christie Museum. It would have been the easiest commercial option to take but not the right option. Thankfully, common sense has prevailed. While Greenway House is certainly not the grandest National Trust property or the most imposing, it is arguably something better - a family home that, in a sense still feels lived in.

It is the little touches that appeal most. The first thing I notice in the Entrance Hall is a stack of panama hats on a table used by Anthony Hicks (Agatha’s son-in-law) for gardening. After a brief introductory talk by one of the volunteers, I head straight for the library.

The family were clearly proud of Agatha’s achievements and many of her books adorn the shelves but the room is by no means a shrine. The most striking thing in the library is not the collection of books but the stunning frieze set along the top of the walls, painted by Lieutenant Marshall Lee while he was stationed at the house.

The frieze depicts Lee’s own wartime experiences and Agatha, when returning to the house after the war, was so taken with it that she decided to keep it. The only section of the original frieze to be covered over, were the paintings of Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin above the fireplace that Agatha did not like looking down at her.

“I don’t know how true it is,” a volunteer tells me before sharing an amusing anecdote in the sitting room. Agatha apparently often used to read her manuscripts to guests but her husband Max would invariably fall asleep. At a fixed point, just before the denouement, Max would wake up, guess the ending and presumably ruin the surprise for everyone!

A recording of Agatha’s voice is played on an occasional loop. Talking about writing she sounds authoritative, as if she is giving the listener instructions but Agatha was supposedly shy and disliked publicity. Then there are her answers on a form, filled out for a rare television interview in 1973 with Michael Parkinson. Loyalty is her favourite virtue. Yeats, Tennyson, and (more surprisingly) T.S. Eliot are her favourite poets. Alongside the question “Where would you like to live?” Agatha has written “In Devon and the Orient.”

Beside the question “What do you most enjoy doing?” Agatha has written a delightful reply that completely throws me off guard: “Sitting in the sun doing nothing.” I was expecting her answer to be “writing mysteries” or “thinking up ingenious plot twists readers will never guess.” Suddenly my preconceptions of the Queen of Crime are in tatters.

The rest of the house includes Oriental pottery and details of archaeological excavations conducted in the Middle East. Agatha and her husband Max travelled extensively and were keen collectors, Agatha often accompanying Max during expeditions abroad.

Although there is no evidence to suggest that she wrote any of her works at Greenway, Agatha must have spent a considerable period of time there over the years. She exhibited her flower arranging skills at the Brixham Flower Show and paid for a new stained-glass window in Churston Church.

Walking around the gardens she was so fond of, I cannot quite dismiss the notion that from “sitting in the sun doing nothing” ideas and “Eureka” moments would have occurred. The boathouse, for instance, seen today in its faded splendour of peeling paint and wicker chairs, looking out on the river as pleasure-boats idle past, was the inspiration for a murder scene in Dead Man’s Folly.

Agatha did apply her extensive local knowledge in The ABC Murders. One of the book’s murders takes place in Churston, approximately two miles from Greenway. Poirot and Captain Hastings catch a train but after alighting at Churston Station, discover they are too late to stop the crime. In the same book Christie mentions Elberry Cove and the local golf course. She also briefly describes how the surrounding area has only really been recently developed (the book was written in 1936.)

Growing up in the nearby village of Galmpton, I attended the local primary school and remember Agatha’s daughter, Rosalind Hicks. Mrs Hicks was one of the school governors and her arrival in a Rolls Royce was, like a royal visit, guaranteed to turn heads. I think she was white-haired and red-faced although I cannot be entirely sure how accurate my recollections are (small boys being more apt to remember cars than faces.)

Before visiting the house, I had never been a huge fan of Agatha Christie.  After half an hour in Greenway House, however, I am starting to feel a sneaking admiration for her.

Then there is the image on the front of her autobiography, a book Agatha continually refined for fifteen years before its completion. Angus McBean’s black and white portrait of the author is softly-lit. It hints at some secret memory, perhaps tinged with sadness and regret. That expression is the most intriguing mystery of all.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert is said to have been born at Greenway Court (there are no remains of this building although the site is within the current grounds.) A renowned explorer and adventurer during the reign of Elizabeth I, Gilbert (who had Sir Walter Raleigh for a half-brother) is commonly credited with discovering Newfoundland, before perishing on the return journey to England.

The present house dates from the 18^th century. Subsequent wings were added to the house and improvements made to the estate over time. The surrounding area has remained relatively secluded and unspoilt but were it not for one man’s stubbornness and persistent objections to development, the view today might look very different.

The Dartmouth and Torbay Railway Company proposed to develop a line to Dartmouth but when Richard Harvey purchased the Greenway Estate in 1851, he fought the scheme. Eventually a compromise was reached. The idea of a bridge across the Dart was scrapped. The railway company agreed to build a tunnel under part of the Greenway estate for the line to continue to Kingswear, on the same side of the River Dart, where it would also terminate. The line was completed in 1864. The same route is followed by the Paignton and Dartmouth Steam Railway to this day.

During the Second World War Greenway House was taken over by the Admiralty and became the home for a squadron of coastguards from the United States. Agatha Christie and her family returned after the war. Agatha bequeathed the house to her daughter Rosalind Hicks in 1959. Then it passed to Agatha’s grandson, Mathew Prichard before being transferred to the National Trust.

After a £5.4 million renovation project encompassing structural repairs and improvements to other parts of the estate, the House opened to the public and has proved very popular with visitors.

Agatha Christie - An Autobiography, 1993, HarperCollins, London

Dawn B. Sova, phd. - Agatha Christie A to Z, 2000, Checkmark Books, New York

Dr Andrew Norman - Agatha Christie: The Finished Portrait, 2006, Tempus, Stroud, Gloucs.

Laura Thompson - Agatha Christie: An English Mystery, 2007, Headline, London

John Risdon - The River Dart: An Illustrated Exploration of the Dart Estuary, 2004, Halsgrove, Tiverton, Devon

Thank-you for reading. Any comments and suggestions will be gratefully received. I welcome feedback to improve my future hubs.