Agatha Christie at Newlands Corner : The last pieces of the puzzle

A mysterious bungalow, another writer, a woman just as imaginative as Agatha Christie, an attractive chronology of events, this is the 6th and last part of the series about the mysterious 11-day disappearance of the queen of crime fiction. The last pieces of the puzzle.

The mysterious bungalow

According to Laura Thompson* and Tina Jordan**, on December 14, 1926, the New York Times reported “that police found important clues” in a bungalow near Newlands Corner. The items found there included “a bottle labeled poisoned lead and opium, fragments of a torn postcard, a woman’s fur coat, a box of face powder, a loaf of bread, a box of cards and two children’s books.”
In this clipping dated mid-December 1926, is added a useful information, now and summarizing the discovery at the time: “the house is used in summer for writing novels by St. Loe Strachey’s daughter.”

The name given is that of John St. Loe Strachey, a British journalist and newspaper owner who worked for The Spectator magazine, whose daughter Amabel Williams-Ellis, a prolific author, especially of children’s books, was born in Newlands Corner on May 10, 1894.° Amabel Williams-Ellis, who is four years younger than Agatha Christie, was 32 and a half years old at that time. She has been married since 1915 to Clough Williams-Ellis, an architect known worldwide as the creator of Portmeirion a hotel in North Wales immortalized in the TV series with Patrick McGoohan, The Prisoner.

About the bungalow, Laura Thompson said that the police had strewn powder on the floor to see if anyone had entered. That a footprint had been found, but that it was the work of a “rogue reporter” with the help of the waitress at the hotel bar, and that the “opium” was in fact a medical treatment. For Laura Thompson “the few belongings that had been left” in the isolated house “were the possessions of its owners”.

John St Loe Strachey built a property in 1892 at Newlands Corner, a Victorian country house. His last child was born there in 1901. If this house had become the Newlands Corner Hotel in 1926 (now called The Manor House Hotel), it is possible that the family may have kept an outbuilding or, more likely, that this bungalow at Newlands Corner had been abandoned for some time. If the pseudo “crime scene” has been polluted, it is still possible to question, and without prejudging whether or not Agatha Christie could have taken shelter there during the night of December 3–4, one can consider this alternative to staying in the second car.

Wouldn’t there be some magic effect in this place? The Surrey News°° site tells us that, according to Derek Nightingale, the author of Newlands Corner and its Environs, “all of Merrow Downs, the common land that connects the open space from Pewley Down to Newlands Corner, used to be called “Fairyland”, a name that has since been forgotten by most”. The place is located a little further on the southwestern slope of the famous hill area. Fairy Land ?

Chronology of Agatha Christie’s disappearance in 1926

Wednesday, December 1st
- Evening Dinner in London, night at her Club, the Forum Club
Thursday, December 2nd
- Probable morning in London (where?)
- In the afternoon visit to the literary agents Hugues Massie Ltd.
- Evening Weekly dance lesson in Ascot with Charlotte Fisher, her secretary
Friday, December 3rd
- In the morning, quarrel between Agatha and Archie, he latter leaves
- Charlotte Fisher has taken the day off, she goes to London to her sister’s house, meets a friend for dinner and then goes dancing.
- In the morning, departure of Styles in Morris Cowley for an unknown destination (London at Nan’s house? Mechanic?)
- Noon, return to Styles. Lunch alone
- 17h-18h Visit to her mother-in-law’s house in Dorking (not friends) with her daughter
- Around 6:30 pm Passing in front of the quarries at night
- Around 7–7:30 pm Return to Styles. Lunch alone. Writing letters
- 21h45 or 22h Departure from Styles for a meeting place, her daughter is sleeping
- 11:40 p.m.-Midnight Arrival of the two cars at Newlands Corner. The second car is placed in Trodds Lane.
- The two people leave for London with the Morris Cowley.
Saturday, December 4th
- Arrival in London around 1:30 am, rest period
- Around 3h30–4h Departure from London to Newlands Corner and Albury in Water Lane
- Around 5–5:30 am Agatha Christie throws her car against a grassy embankment.
- 6:20 a.m. Not far from Newlands Corner, after several tries, McAllister starts the car with the cold engine of a woman without any coat or hat.
- Around 7:00 am, the woman drives away slowly.
- Shortly before dawn, observation of a car with headlights on by Harry Green.
- 8:00 a.m. Best and Dore observe the car, Dore finds the coat, the stuff and notifies the police.
- 9:45 am Obliteration of a letter in the London SW1 Post Office

* Agatha Christie by Laura Thompson, Google books.
** https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/books/agatha-christie-vanished-11-days-1926.html
°° https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/newlands-corner-archive-pictures-show-10791351
° Wikipedia
Nota bene : John St Loe Stachey lived in Chelsea where he died a few months later on August 26, 1927.