DITTISHAM AND GREENWAY

Dittisham, pronounced Ditsum, is a small village on the west shore of the River Dart. There is not a lot here apart from the obligatory church and pub, and lanes lined with cottages sloping steeply towards the river. However, it attracts a large number of visitors due to the fact that there is a ferry which crosses the river from Dittisham to the National Trust property Greenway Estate.

Greenway House is famous for being the former home of the crime writer Agatha Christie. Agatha and her husband Max Mallowan bought the house in 1938, and they used it as a holiday home until their deaths, which occurred within a couple of years of each other in the 1970s. Originally a Tudor mansion occupied the site of the present day house, but by the time Agatha and Max moved in this had been replaced by an elegant white Georgian house. During World War II the house was requisitioned by the US military for the D-Day preparations. The house is filled with mementoes of their time there: the Steinway piano she used to play, artefacts from the Middle East brought back by her husband, who organised archaeological digs there, and much much more. Meanwhile, the gardens, filled with plants such as camellias and rhododendrons, slope down towards the banks of the river.

Map of the area.