Who lives in Devon (England)? I need your help!!)

Anna Ignatenko

Hello to everyone!
I need some information about locality nearby Exeter, Dartmoor, Torquay and Princetown (I'm reading Agatha Christie's book The Sittaford Mystery and I'd like to know if some places as Exhampton and Sittaford village really exist or have any prototypes)

Griselda

Her towns and villages are usually based on real places. There is an actual place called Exmouth on an estuary - that is real enough. I googled, and there is a Sittaford Tor, near Okehampton, Devon. A tor is a hill. Interestingly, very recently, and ancient stone circle has been discovered there. That is, of course, a relic of stone age men. They made stone circles as a religious monument. Stonehenge is the most famous example in Britain: it is in Wiltshire. I think that it is ironic about the find because Agatha Christie's second husband, Max Mallowan, was interested in archaeology, and old relics or much earlier times. It is possible that places featured in Agatha Christie novels took her interest because her husband was interested in the history of the area - even if he didn't actually do a formal dig of excavation there. You'd have to check the date of her second marriage to check that it would have been him she was with by the time seh wrote The Sittaford Mystery in 1931.
It is worth remembering that the countryside has been denuded of communities as the decades of the 20th and 21st centuries have gone by. It is just not viable for families to live in quiet rural villages because there is not enough work there. The farming industry in Britain has been in decline decade by decade because big supermarkets undercut the price of meat and dairy foods, and import cheaper alternatives to British reared. Sittaford was small in 1931, so I should think it just might have ceased to exist as a proper community today. A big house such as Sittaford house might be a hotel now, and possibly the bungalows might have been turned into holiday lets. homes for rent in the summer. However, AC could have made up the village, and you might find it. Your best bet to trace villages is to see if someone has a map of the area. The railways are a clue to what might have existed, as I think she would keep that fact the same. If she was thinking of a town she knew, she would write in her novel that it had a railway if the town she knew did - because that fact impacted on the character of the place - how busy it was, etc. Bear in mind that the British railway system was radically altered in the early 1960s, under Dr Beeching. Small lines were taken out of service because the road system in Britain was improving and taking more traffic. You'd need someone with an old map. Also ggogle something like Dartmoor Museum, or the Devon Tourist Board, and ask them the question.

  I think you mentioned before that your research is based on the significance of place in Agatha Christie novels. You are writing a paper on why AC chose certain locations. For what it is worth, I think that AC was principally interested in social dynamics, and therefore, her choice of location would be guided by her perception of where people were tending to want to live, and what was fashionable. (Remembering she is only interested, re her characters,  in the middle and upper classes).  Of significance, I think, is the fact that during the era preceding the writing of The Sittaford Mystery, and during the time when Captain Trevelyan was in his prime, there was enormous interest in Nature. It is noted that just before the outbreak of the first World War in Europe,in 1914, most poets, or educated men of poetic inclination, were writing about the beauties of nature and the countryside. For instance, at that time The Arts and Crafts Movement were celebrating the artisan crafts of the countryside, woodcarving and rug weaving, as a reaction against the industrialisation of Britain during the second half of the nineteenth century, and what it had done to change  Britain. The World War 1 poets combined themes of war with themes of celebration of rural beauty because that was what they were writing about before they were invited or called up to fight. I think the reason Captain Trevelyan and his neighbours would have chosen a remote and wild location like Sittaford was because it was fashionable to rave about Nature, and they had probably read some poetry about Dartmoor. There was supposed to be religious and spiritual beauty in Nature. The characters might have had other reasons, but that would be a main one. For when you study the other novels and locations, where there is seaside, have a read of the introduction to Evil Under the Sun. There is a note from AC about the island, and how the great fresh air and sea bathing became really fashionable in the first three decades of the twentieth century. You imagine all these rich people, like Arlena Marshall, going to the Devon or Cornish Coast to be free and healthy. So, for significance of location, look at the fashions of the time. Often AC will be showing that the people who chose these places were a bit gullable or impressionable. Hope these observations are of some help with your paper.

Anna Ignatenko

Thank you very much for the information!! It was so kind of you! I can't even describe how you have helped me!!