Today, we’ll explore the Greenway House, which belonged to the best-selling British novelist of all time: Agatha Christie. She is known for her 66 detective novels, 14 short story collections, and the world’s longest-running play, The Mousetrap. Her books, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare, have sold over 100 million copies and been translated into 100 languages.
Agatha Christie, the world-renowned mystery and detective novelist, had a profound connection with her holiday home, Greenway House, which offered her a private retreat from the public eye and served as a source of inspiration for her writings. Located in the English Riviera, within the county of Devon, Greenway holds a special place in the hearts of Christie fans and those fascinated by English literature and history.
The three-story estate is located on the meandering River Dart near Galmpton in Devon, England. It is two miles from the nearest village, Galmpton. Greenway’s story started in the late Georgian period, when an affluent 18th-century gentleman, Harris Roope, replaced a former 16-century Tudor estate, Greenway Court, with the elegant, stuccoed house. There are still the remnants of a Tudor courtyard underneath the current house’s hallway. Roope gave his very best to the building project because he went bankrupt afterward. He had to sell the home to a Bristol merchant, Edward Elton, for nearly 11,000 dollars.
When Edward Elton died in 1811, his son James Elton inherited and expanded the house. The original mansion looked different from its modern version: two wings flanking the central structure with the dining and drawing rooms. A billiard room and more bedrooms were added to the initial design. The Elton family also designed the romantic woodland garden with the help of the landscape gardener Humphry Repton.
In 1832, James Elton sold the estate. The home had switched several owners before Agatha Christie moved there with her husband, the archaeologist Max Mallowan, in 1938. By that time, they had been married for almost a decade.
Agatha knew Greenway from her childhood: she grew up in nearby Torquay. Torquay had significantly developed in the previous years, which didn’t fascinate Christie. The magnificent sea view from her Torquay house became obstructed by new buildings. Agatha looked for another house nearby and discovered that Greenway was available. During her youth, she had noticed this property and recalled it as “the most perfect of the various properties on the Dart.”
For more details, please check our video about Agatha Christie