Its last stand for King Charles I in 1646 saw its only, but final, downfall.Īgatha Christie used the name ‘Wallingford’ in only one book, Cards on the Table, but in a description of Market Basing in Dumb Witness she surely had Wallingford in mind:

With its Charter granted in 1155, it was once a renowned royal stronghold, protected by Saxon earth walls, and a massive royal castle - seat of the heirs to the throne for 500 years. In 1934 Wallingford was a typical small English market town, with a wide variety of shops and services, centred round its Market Place and fine 17th century Town Hall. Sales catalogue for Winterbrook House 1930s, © Wallingford Museum Town Life for Mrs Mallowan Agatha worked wherever she happened to be and many of her most famous books and plays were written or completed during her long years at Winterbrook House. They adapted it to provide him with a substantial library looking across the meadows to the river, which, Agatha commented, ‘ Max has always thought of as ideal’. Here they had privacy away from the limelight, where they could work and feel comfortable at home together.Īgatha always considered Winterbrook House to be ‘Max’s house’. ‘I think,’ said Max, ‘we are going to be very happy there.’ And sure enough we have been very happy there, for nearly thirty-five years now’ Agatha Christie, An AutobiographyĪgatha and Max were often away from Wallingford for several months of a year, abroad on archaeological excavations, or on holiday in Devon at Ashfield in Torquay, or later at Greenway, but they always came back to Winterbrook House. It had a poor railway service and was therefore not at all the sort of place people came to, either from Oxford or from London.

Blue plaque that hangs on Winterbrook House, © Wallingford Museum Why Wallingford? Wallingford was a nice place. It became their home base for the rest of their long lives together, until Agatha passed away there peacefully in 1976. Here, in 1934, she and her new husband Max Mallowan purchased Winterbrook House, a substantial 18th century property, with seven acres of land sweeping down to the river Thames. One of Agatha Christie’s best kept secrets was her long association with Wallingford and its neighbouring parish of Cholsey.

Max mallowan and agatha christie