The Queen of Crime's Torbay (Part One)

Every September, Torquay plays host to a festival celebrating the life and work of its favourite daughter - Agatha Christie.  We've all seen her work transformed on the television, with the likes of Miss Marple and Poirot gracing the screen with their supreme sleuthing, but who amongst us has really explored the life and times of the Queen of Crime?  I certainly haven't - I've never read a Christie book before in my life - but if there's one week for a Devonian to delve a little deeper, this must surely be it.

Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born on 15 September 1890 at the Victorian mansion of Ashfield, in what would then have been the top end of Torquay.  She spent many happy childhood years here with her parents, Frederick and Clara Miller, and her elder siblings Monty and Madge, walking down to the sea or exploring the lanes at the top end of town.  Nowadays, the Ashfield mansion is a distant memory; demolished in the 1960s to make way for a modern apartment block that surely bares little resemblance to its predecessor, the Torbay Civic Society have at least graced the spot with a blue plaque, and it is here that our journey around Christie's Torquay begins.  It's a quiet road, with few redeeming features and plenty of on-street parking, a rather innocuous place in which to begin a day discovering the author who has been globally out-sold by only William Shakespeare and the Bible.

Ashfield Historic Site, birthplace of Agatha Christie

Five days after her birth, Agatha was taken to All Saints Church, the parish church of Torquay's oldest parish, for her baptism.  She continued to worship here as a child, sitting in the front row every Sunday with her father.  To celebrate this link to the crime writer's formative years, the church has been holding a flower festival all through the week.  Lizzie and I enter the cool interior, said to be little changed since Agatha's day, where some pretty displays have been laid around the church.  More interestingly, however, are the Christie artefacts that the church has acquired - an old record player sits nonchalantly atop a piano, accompanied by some Christie novels, whilst hanging on the back wall, pride of place, is a copy of Agatha's birth certificate.  Sensing we are on the Christie trail, we are approached by a lady who tells us a little about the church and the Christie connection.  Miss Marple and Poirot actors are both in town, she tells us.  Miss Marple is a local lady who does the job for free; Poirot, she says, commands a fee of £800 for his appearance!

A copy of Agatha Christie's birth certificate

Flower Festival Exhibits, All Saints Church

All Saints Church, Torre

Leaving the peaceful All Saints Church behind us, we make for the seafront, to the Agatha Christie Mile.  It begins at the Grand Hotel, a stone's throw from the railway station, site of Agatha and Archie Christie's honeymoon on Christmas Eve, 1914.  Archie was a qualified aviator who had joined the Royal Flying Corps, and he had to return to the war in France on Boxing Day.  Agatha kept herself busy during the First World War by working in the Voluntary Aid Detachment of the Red Cross Hospital in Torquay, and ended up working in the dispensary.

The Grand Hotel, Torquay

The sun breaks through the clouds and beats down on the English Riviera, the perfect weather for strolling a garden.  Fortunately for us, there is one just around the corner - our next stop on the Mile, Torre Abbey Gardens.  The abbey itself is under renovation, but the gardens remain open to the public, and have been beautifully maintained by the enthusiastic groundstaff.  Agatha was also enthusiastic about plants, with particular reference to their medicinal powers, using their potions and poisons in many of her murder mystery books.  This has inspired the Torre Abbey gardeners to open the Agatha Christie Potent Plant Collection, displaying a collection of plants of toxicity.  There is also a trail included where Christie fans can attempt to recognise and name the Christie stories from clues in the garden.  This is no good for Christie amateurs Lizzie and I, but the gardens are a gentle pleasure, instantly transporting us out of Torquay and into another world.

In Torre Abbey Gardens

Even with the very changeable weather, a stroll along the seafront remains a pleasurable experience, and is intrinsically entwined with the Agatha Christie story.  Princess Pier was first built in 1890, the year of Agatha's birth, and was a favourite rollerskating spot of the youngster.  The Princess Gardens were featured in her novel, The ABC Murders, and it was following a Wagner concert at Torquay Pavilion that Archie Christie proposed to Agatha Miller in 1912.  Wandering into the pavilion, there was a striking atmosphere of faded opulence, but a little look around revealed the design and architecture of those decadent days when class was in the air, when the music played through the night and the sun never set on the young and the wealthy.

Princess Pier, Torquay

Princess Gardens, Torquay

Torquay Pavilion

Opposite the pavilion entrance, in the gardens of Cary Parade, a bust of Agatha Christie stands tall and proud.  It was erected to celebrate the centenary year of her birth, 1990, and was unveiled by Agatha's daughter Rosalind Hicks.  Dutch sculptor Carol Van Dem Boom-Cairns created the masterpiece, which has become a popular attraction with visitors the world over.  It seems fitting that this bust should be here, the centre of Torquay and the centre point of the Agatha Christie Mile.

The Agatha Christie Bust, Cary Parade, Torquay