Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End since 1952, as well as six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
Torquay is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies 18 miles (29 km) south of the county town of Exeter and 28 miles (45 km) east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignton on the west of the bay and across from the fishing port of Brixham.
Glyndebourne is an English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The house, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England, is thought to be about six hundred years old and listed at grade II.
Waddesdon is a village in Buckinghamshire, England, 6 miles (10 km) west-north-west of Aylesbury on the A41 road. The village also includes the hamlets of Eythrope and Wormstone, Waddesdon was an agricultural settlement with milling, silk weaving and lace making enterprises.
Greenway, also known as Greenway House, is an estate on the River Dart near Galmpton in Devon, England. Once the home of the author Agatha Christie, it is now owned by the National Trust.
Exminster is a village situated on the southern edge of the City of Exeter on the western side of the Exeter ship canal and River Exe in the county of Devon, England. It is around 6 km (3.7 mi) south of the centre of Exeter, and has a population of 3,084, increasing to 3,368 at the 2011 census.
Braunton Burrows is a sand dune system on the North Devon coast. It is privately owned and forms part of the Christie Devon Estates Trust. Braunton Burrows is a prime British sand dune site, the largest sand dune system (psammosere) in England. It is particularly important ecologically because it includes the complete successional range of dune plant communities, with over 470 vascular plant species. The short turf communities are very rich in lichens and herbs, and the dune slacks are also rich. The many rare plants and animals include 14 with UK Biodiversity Action Plans. For example, this is one of only two sites in the UK for the Amber Sandbowl Snail Catinella arenaria, which is found on the wet dune slacks.
Burlescombe is a village and civil parish in the Mid Devon district of Devon, England. The parish is surrounded, clockwise from the north, by the parishes of Holcombe Rogus, Culmstock, Uffculme, Halberton and Sampford Peverell. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 911. The village is about 5 miles (8.0 km) south west of Wellington in Somerset. The ruins of the 12th century Canonsleigh Abbey are nearby. Burlescombe is part of the electoral ward of Canonsleigh. The population of this ward was 3,218 at the 2011 Census.
Holbeton is a civil parish and village located 9 miles south east of Plymouth in the South Hams district of Devon, England. At the 2001 census the parish had a population of 579, down from 850 in 1901. By 2011 it had increased to 619.
William Wither Bramston Beach was an English Conservative politician, who served in the House of Commons for 44 years between 1857 and 1901, becoming Father of the House of Commons in 1899.
William Langham Christie of Glyndebourne, Sussex, and Tapeley, North Devon, was a British Conservative Party politician.
John Clevland,, of Tapeley in the parish of Westleigh, North Devon, was Secretary to the Admiralty and was twice a Member of Parliament for Saltash in Devon and for Sandwich in Kent.
John Davie (1640–1710) of Orleigh Court in the parish of Buckland Brewer, Devon, England, was a prominent tobacco merchant from Bideford, Devon. His Bideford town house which he built in 1688, was Colonial House, now the Royal Hotel, in which survive several 17th-century decorative plasterwork ceilings, said by Pevsner & Cherry (2004) to be amongst the best in Devon, and a grand staircase.
Tapeley is a historic estate in the parish of Westleigh in North Devon, England.
Augustus Clevland (1754–1784), was an East India Company administrator in the Province of Bengal, a Collector of the Revenues and a Judge of the Dewanny Adawlut of the Districts of Bhagalpur and various others. He was very hostile towards the native Indians, after the 1777 famine the natives revolted against the company and he was killed by the rebellion leader Tilka manjhi. He died in mid-career at the early age of 30.
Commander William Clevland (1664–1734), of Tapeley in the parish of Westleigh, North Devon, was a Scottish-born Royal Navy commander who served as Controller of Storekeepers' Accounts. In 1704, he purchased the estate of Tapeley which today is still owned and occupied by his descendants the Christie family, also of Glyndebourne House, East Sussex.
John II Clevland of Tapeley in the parish of Westleigh, Devon, was seven times Member of Parliament for Barnstaple from 1766 to 1802.
Rosemary Anne Lauder, of North Devon, England, is a historian of the county of Devonshire. She started her writing career in the 1980s as a journalist contributing articles on the subject of gardening, in which she retains a strong interest. She received an MA in Garden History from the University of Bristol. She is a long-standing member of the Devon Gardens Trust, in which organisation she plays an active role. She is author and publisher of many books and booklets on the topics of walking in North Devon, the topography of Exmoor and North Devon, and the history of the region. She lived for five years in a former gardener's cottage rented from the Tapeley Park estate in the parish of Westleigh, North Devon. Her historical works concentrate especially on the landed gentry of Devonshire and their mansions and estates, most notably Vanished Houses and Devon Families (2002). Several of her works have been published by Devon's Heritage.
Horwood, Lovacott and Newton Tracey is a civil parish in North Devon district, Devon, England. In the 2011 census it was recorded as having a population of 487. It includes the villages of Horwood and Newton Tracey and the hamlet of Lovacott.
