There is strong evidence that the house where Agatha Christie actually lived, Winterbrook Lodge in the actual town of Wallingford, is the model for Danemead, which is Miss Marple's house in the village of St Mary Mead. Moreover, Wallingford is believed to be the model for the fictional town of Market Basing, the site of a number of Agatha Christie's mysteries . St. Mary Mead, so Miss Marple tells us during the Nemesis case, is midway between the towns of Market Basing and another fictional town, Loomouth, on the southern coast. And, the actual town of Alton, Miss Marple further exclaims during the Nemesis case, is only about twenty-five miles from St Mary mead.

The Village

High Street is the only road of any significance that passes through the village. To the northwest for about a mile beyond the village is the little trafficked railway station as most travelers use the train station in the town of Much Behan, just two miles east from St Mary Mead. Much Behan is where Inspector Slack and Colonel Melchett, the Chief Constable of the country are headquartered. These officers first meet Miss Marple when investigating the Murder at the Vicarage, and again during the Tape Measure Murder, and the Body in the Library. On the other side of the village and the nearest coastal resort is another fictional town, Danemouth, some 18 miles away.It is my surmise that Basingstoke is the actual location for the fictional town of Market Basing and the Portsmouth is the actual location for the fictional town of Portsmouth. They meet the criteria of being about twenty-five or so miles apart and Portsmouth is on the sea coast. As Miss Marple says she lives roughly midway between the two towns and some twenty miles from the actual town of Alton. Also on the seacoast is the actual coastal resort town of Bournemoth which is the fictional town of Danemouth.
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Can you guess the present day location of St. Mary Mead?
The southern edge of London is about twenty-five miles north of the village.
The town of Market Basing and the coast at Loomouth are twelve miles equidistant from the village.
The seaside resort town of Danemouth is twenty miles southeast of the village.

On the road to Danemouth, the town of Much Behan is two miles southeast of the village.
The village of St Mary Mead in Agatha Christie's books in The Mystery of the Blue Train. Katherine Grey, the protagonist in Murder on the BlueTrain was from that St Mary Mead, which was located in Kent and fits the description of the village of Miss Marple. Murder on the Blue Train was written in 1928 two years before the appearance of Miss Marple in Murder at the Vicarge. Begining with this story, however, all Miss Marple twelve novels and twenty short stories place the village mostly in the home county of Downshire and occasionaly in Radfordshire about 25 miles south of London.