The country house that inspired Agatha Christie's novels

Known as the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie murder mysteries have captivated audiences for more than a century.

But it might come as a surprise to some that many of her stories were inspired by a country house in Cheadle, Greater Manchester.

Abney Hall is the subject of a new episode of Hidden Manchester on BBC Sounds after the Cheadle Civic Society erected an information board in the grounds explaining the novelist's connections.

In 1902, Christie first arrived at Abney Hall when she was about 11 years old as her older sister Madge lived at the house after marrying into the wealthy Watts family.

Nestled in the village of Cheadle, the gothic building has high-ceilinged rooms, gold chandeliers and a red velvet carpet running down the centre of a large wooden staircase.

Outside, there are crosses etched into the stone walls as well as distinctive chimney stacks - no doubt the inspiration for one of her stories The Secret of Chimneys.

Trever Evers, from the society, said there were plenty of features to inspire the writer.

"You know Abney Hall had it all, it had a waterfall, it had a tunnel under the drive," he said.

"She loved the fact that the house had back passageways and staircases that they used to hide from each other."

Evers added that the geography of Abney Hall was itself an inspiration.

"The 4.50 from Paddington [was] a very famous Miss Marple novel," he said.

"That's inspired by the grounds at Abney because in Agatha's day the estate was probably I think 10 times bigger than we know it today and the grounds were circled by two railway lines.

"The plot revolves around a murder that happens on a train and the body gets pushed out of the train into the estate of a country house.

"The fact that Abney was surrounded by these two railway lines, one of which does curve which forces trains to slow down, that is said to have inspired the storyline for that."

However, it was in 1926 that Abney Hall plays its most crucial role for Christie.

On 3 December of that year, she famously went missing.

It was shortly after her successful novel - The murder of Roger Akroyd - had been published.

Whilst there were unproved rumours it was to boost book sales, her grandson Matthew Pritchard told the BBC in 2015 there was a lot going on in her life at that time.

"I do fairly strongly believe that what she suffered from is rooted in deep unhappiness," he said.

"This all that happened when her husband was in the process of leaving her but her mother died and suddenly her whole world crashed from beneath her.

"It can provide unexpected effects on your health and maybe an unconscious desire to go away somewhere and wish you weren't there."

The search for Christie was one of the largest in the history of Surrey police.

She was found 11 days later more than 200 miles away at a hotel in Harrogate.

Her sister Madge went to collect her and brought her back to Abney Hall to recover.

Evers said the whole episode was a media frenzy at the time.

Christie stayed at the country house over the Christmas period of 1926 to recuperate.

She went on to write many more books featuring the detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, who is named after the local train station.

Christie died in 1976 at the age of 85, having written more than 80 books.

Abney Hall stayed in the Watts family for several generations before being sold and became a town hall.

It is now leased as office space but the public can access the gardens anytime.

The hall is accessible on heritage open days and forms part of the Cheadle heritage trail.

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