St. Mary Mead St. Mary Mead St. Mary Mead was the fictional village created by popular crime fiction author Dame Agatha Christie. The quaint, sleepy village was home to the renowned detective spinster Miss Marple. However, Christie first described a village of that name prior to Marple's introduction, in the 1928 Hercule Poirot novel "The Mystery of the Blue Train". In that novel, St. Mary Mead is home to the book's protagonist Katherine Grey. The village was first mentioned in a Miss Marple book in 1930, when it was the setting for the first Marple novel, "The Murder at the Vicarage". Miss Marple's
Marple railway station buildings replacing the Midland's offices. From Marple to Romiley, the line passes through Marple Tunnel to the junction with the short branch to Rose Hill Marple, then over the long stone viaduct that crosses the River Goyt and the Peak Forest Canal. Alongside the viaduct is the Marple Aqueduct, which carries the Peak Forest Canal over the River Goyt. In 1902, when Agatha Christie was twelve, her sister Margaret married James Watts and they lived at Abney Hall, Cheadle. Christie, encouraged by Watts to write, was a frequent visitor to Abney Hall from a young age into adulthood. The area