Greenway, Picture by Mark Passmore courtesy apexnewspix.com
‘The loveliest place in the world,’ is how world famous crime writer Agatha Christie described her holiday home Greenway, which is now open to the public following a £5.4 million restoration.
It has taken hard working volunteers, builders, curators, conservators and craftsmen thousands of hours to restore the house to its holiday home heyday, enjoyed by Christie and her family between 1938 and 1959.
The gardens have been open to the public since 2000, when the property was handed over to the National Trust, however the house remained closed to the public to allow Christie’s daughter Rosalind Hicks and her husband Anthony, who each passed away in 2004 and 2005, to enjoy their retirement.
Christie’s grandson Mathew Prichard then donated the house and much of the contents to the National Trust and is delighted that his family’s Dartmouth bolthole is now open for the public to enjoy.
He said: “At last! After many years of toil on behalf of the National Trust, Greenway is restored to its former beauty and ready for the public to come in. What I wish most is that the people who visit it feel some of the magic and sense of place that I felt when my family and I spent so much time there in the 1950s and 1960s.
"If they do, then our gift of Greenway will be well worthwhile. Good luck. I can sense Greenway rubbing its hands in expectation!”
Agatha Christie in the Library at Greenway, courtesy of apexnewspix.com
The picturesque Greenway estate boasts 278 acres and includes the garden, farm, woodland and over a mile of stunning river frontage, so it is easy to see why Christie fell in love with the property.
Some of the highlights include a frieze in the library painted by Lt Marshall Lee while the house was requisitioned by the admiralty in 1943. It portrays some of the scenes familiar with wartime Dartmouth including the bombing of a warship and a naked lady.
The Drawing Room has been painstakingly restored - the gilding on the architrave was undertaken by one craftsman to ensure all of the brush strokes were the same and took two weeks.
The restoration has been sympathetic – Christie’s bedroom has not been repainted to show the original shade of cream that she chose and scratch marks left by Cheekyi - Rosalind and Anthony’s dog - have been left on the bedroom door for all to see.
The library at Greenway, Picture by Mark Passmore / apexnewspix.com
Robyn Brown, National Trust Property Manager for Greenway said: “It will be a huge relief when we finally open the house to our visitors, a relief that will be tinged with certain poignancy that Rosalind and Anthony are no longer with us to see how beautiful the house is now looking.
“The greatest compliment I have received from volunteers to whom I have shown the house, and who have been working tirelessly with me throughout the project, is that it seems as if we have not changed anything at all!”
A huge number of Christie’s first editions and her American and English titles reflecting the author’s enormous output - will be on display in the Fax Room.
Personal collections and mementoes from Christie and her family will also be on display to visitors in a house which has been finished to portray the spirit of a holiday home in the 1950s.
Part of the house has also been converted into a holiday apartment and is decorated as it was for modern living in 1938 and continues Greenways legacy as a holiday retreat.
The mammoth restoration project was helped along by generous donations from the Heritage Lottery Fund of £800,000 and Devon Renaissance donated £95,000 for the new visitors centre at Greenway.
Go to www.nationaltrust.org.uk for more information.
