Looking For Fatty & co. in Peterswood/Bourne End

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Green Hedges
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Looking For Fatty & co. in Peterswood/Bourne End

Post by Green Hedges »

A few days ago I went to Bourne End to see if I could locate Fatty's house. Perhaps I did, you can judge for yourself. Anyone interested can follow my journey using Google Earth, the facility that allows you to zero-in on any part of the planet. Yes, we live in a brave new global Peterswood! The website link is:

http://maps.google.co.uk" target="_blank

If you put in to the search line: 'Coldmoorholme Lane, Bourne End, Bucks' that will get the appropriate map on screen. You then navigate north-south-east-west with one tool, and zoom-in and -out with another. It's simple to use. The mode to be in is 'satellite' not 'map' or 'terrain'.

But first you might want to follow this narrative to see if you're interested...

Enid lived from 1929 to 1938 in a house called Old Thatch, which is on Coldmoorholme Lane just north of a kink about a third of the way up the Lane from the river. It's beside a big pub called The Spade Oak. If you put either of these addresses into the search then an arrow will point them out.

In the first Mystery, the 'burning cottage' to the west of Peterswood is an outhouse at Mr Hick's cottage, on Haycock Lane. This is effectively the house that Dick Hughes lived in in the garden of Old Thatch. (To get Hick from Dick Hughes is not hard - place the first letter of name two on all letters except the first of name one!) Beside Mr Hick's house there is a hotel and it is here that Fatty lives with his parents in the first book. I hope you are with me so far. :)

For the ensuing Mysteries it didn't make sense for the Trottevilles to be living in temporary accomadation, so Enid moved them to White House in Peterswood, 'not far from' the houses of the Hiltons and the Daykins. Any clues as to where that was? Well, yes, there are.

First, I should say that when Enid was writing the Mysteries, from 1943 to 1961, she lived three miles north of Bourne End, in the house called Green Hedges which is in the town of Beaconsfied. She may either have revisited the village for the odd afternoon to jog her mental map or relied on her memories from the 1929 to 1938 stay.

In the very first Enid Blyton Society Journal David Cook argued convincingly that Peterwood was Bourne End. In a subsequent issue, Andrew Carswell wrote a follow up article which included a map of Bourne End which had been updated to 1920. Bourne End is much expanded today and it is useful to see the relatively small patches of development back in roughly the time that Enid would have known the place.

In fact, Enid would have been quite isolated at Old Thatch on Coldmoorholme Lane. Perhaps she could have walked over the field to the east, towards the centre of the village. This leads to the residential development 'The Abbey'. But there are a lot of water features here, it's very exclusive, and it doesn't tally with the Mysteries, I don't think. She could also have walked to the open countryside to the west of Old Thatch ("hello Enchanted Wood; greetings Magic Faraway Tree"). Otherwise she would be walking south down Coldmoorholme lane to the river, and we know that the Find-Outers lived some distance from the river though they often walked to it and along it. Or Enid could have walked north to Marlow Road. There is a patch of development on Marlow Road (turn right at the top of Coldmoorholme Lane) and it's this patch I want to focus on in a minute.

During my quick visit to Bourne End, I only had one Mystery with me. 'The Mystery of the Missing Man'. This is the one where Eunice is staying at the Trotteville house, so Fatty does a lot of sneaking from house to shed and from village to shed. So here is how I got on with that...

Chapter three: Fatty has returned home from the Hiltons house. Enid writes that 'he circled his house and garden, and went in at the little gate that led out from the very bottom of the garden into the lane'.

Chapter four: Fatty wants to get away from Eunice. Enid writes: 'He ran to the post[box], and then circled the house and garden til he came to the little gate again at the very bottom.'

Just a couple more examples before I explain what's of interest here. Chapter five: Fatty has been in his shed with his tramp disguise on. In order to escape Goon he runs right through the garden and out the front gate and down the road. Goon follows but by the time he gets to the first corner, Fatty has disappeared. 'He had run into the garden of the house there, gone right down to the bottom, leapt over the wall and made his way back once more to the little lane right at the bottom of his own garden.'

Finally, Chapter 13: Fatty is returning home from the middle of the village. Enid writes: 'Fatty leapt off the bus as soon as it stopped and made his way to the lane at the back of his garden. He slipped in through the little gate there and went cautiously to the nearby shed.'

There is more of this kind of thing. As a reader you half-skip it, content with a vague picture of what's going on. But Enid returns to her mental map almost compulsively. This stuff matters to her.

OK so what about this little lane at the back of Fatty's house? The 1920 map of Bourne End shows a footpath running parallel to Marlow Road and one house block north of it. It goes all the way to the village centre, but in 1920 most of it would have been unenclosed. However in that section between Abbey Road and Wendover Road it would likely have been enclosed. That is, as now, a narrow way for pedestrians with wooden fencing on either side. If you zoom in on the Google Earth page, you can clearly see the lane as it passes behind five houses in a row between these two roads. Three of the houses are newish. Which leaves two houses as possibilities for Fatty's residence (blast! - I forgot to note their names). I'm imagining Enid walking up Coldmoorholme Lane and being fascinated by the narrow lane that runs behind the big houses. Are you following me?

What else does The Mystery of the Missing Man tell us? It takes Fatty seven minutes to walk from his house to the Town Hall where the beetle event takes place. Well, it took me about that long to walk from the two houses on Marlow Road along the lane to where the library and the community centre now stand.

More? Fatty goes jogging along the river several times. I see him accessing the river via Coldmoorholme Lane, giving a little nod to the former home of his creator as he passes Old Thatch. Barker's Field plays an important part in the plot, this is clearly to the west of Peterswood. Eunice discovers Fatty locked up in a caravan. She returns to the river and intends to turn towards Peterswood, but she gets her directions wrong and walks along the long, long river-path to Marlow. You can do the same using the Google Earth facility! :)

Thus endeth the geography lesson!

Well, no, not at all. I haven't had a chance to see if what is said in this Mystery is consistent with what Enid comes up with in the other books in the series. In The Mystery of Holly Lane, there is a detailed (but not detailed enough) description of the journey from Peterswood station to Fatty's house. Bourne End station is slightly to the south and east of the centre of the village, about ten minutes walk from the houses on Marlow Road that I mention above. I'm not at all sure that the journey from the station can be reconciled to the directions Enid gives in this book.

I do wonder if Enid visited Bourne End to top up and perhaps vary her mental map for each story. When she was writing the Famous Five books, she visited Swanage each year. And, as I argue in Looking For Enid, her movements - where she stayed and so on - fed into the stories, demonstrably so in the case of the last few books in that series.

It would also be fun to trace the Hiltons and the Daykins house. A place to start looking might be in the block of development marked on the 1920 map above the junction of Elm Road and Marlow Road. I don't have time to do this right now, especially due to my sub-Arctic location. Perhaps this post will set the ball rolling. I hope so.

Why does this matter? It is great to be in Bourne End where we know Enid lived for a big and vital part of her adult life. It is wonderful - a return to innocence - to feel one is walking the streets in her footsteps and in the footsteps of her creations, the Find-Outers. The more specific knowledge we have about these movements, the closer we get to her creative process. That's the really rewarding thing. You can get there just from reading the books, possibly. But this is another way and might suit the way some people's minds work.

Crikey! - this is a very long post. Sorry about that. Hope it's of interest to some new-age Find-Outers.

Duncan
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Re: Looking For Fatty

Post by Kitty »

That's an impressive lot of effort - wow :D

I'm awful at this kind of thing. I remember feeling really smug about identifying the setting of a modern novel as an obscure bit of Ireland - then it turned out from an interview that the author had based it in a village in an entirely different country - ouch!

I suppose part of me also wants to keep my illusions - even if it is possible to pin places down, I don't want Fatty's house to be anything other than the way I pictured it, etc. I'm very wary of movies that adapt books for this reason (though, hypocritically, I loved The Golden Compass because it confirmed a lot of my imaginations).

But I salute your efforts nonetheless!
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Re: Looking For Fatty

Post by Jen-Jen »

Wow Green Hedges! That was a great post - I had a fabulous time looking at the satelite maps of Bourne End aka Peterswood.
Makes me wish I lived there!
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Re: Looking For Fatty

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

I've walked along "the long, long river-path to Marlow," as Enid Blyton describes it in The Mystery of the Missing Man, and it's lovely. The river flows through meadows full of flowers and placid-looking cows, and there are grassy and sandy places at the edge of the river where you can sit beneath the shade of the trees or paddle in the water. We visited in the summer and saw swarms of dragonflies darting here and there as well as red kites circling in the air (the birds, not the things on strings!) We encountered several people walking their dogs but no fat boy with a Scottie, unfortunately!

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Re: Looking For Fatty

Post by Lenoir »

It would be nice to visit the places mentioned, especially after reading the above posts. But google map will have to do for now, and it does show it quite well.

I’ve done one “pilgrimage”. After reading many Lone Pine stories set in Shropshire, I made a point of visiting some of the places mentioned in the books when I got the chance. It was good to finally see the places I felt I knew so well from the books. They weren’t exactly like I imagined of course, but not much different. Nice walks, and it is a beautiful part of the country to visit anyway. Malcolm Saville makes it quite clear that he is writing about ‘real places you can visit for yourself’, but with Enid Blyton some detective work is needed to work it out!
Anita Bensoussane wrote: We encountered several people walking their dogs but no fat boy with a Scottie, unfortunately!
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Perhaps he was in Tippylooloo that day, or maybe he was in disguise! :)
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Re: Looking For Fatty

Post by lizarfau »

Lenoir wrote:After reading many Lone Pine stories set in Shropshire, I made a point of visiting some of the places mentioned in the books when I got the chance. It was good to finally see the places I felt I knew so well from the books. They weren’t exactly like I imagined of course, but not much different. Nice walks, and it is a beautiful part of the country to visit anyway.
A few years ago, my husband and I were driving through Shropshire and got lost. I managed to get us found again courtesy of memories of towns in the Lone Pine books and their proximity to the places we were looking for.

I still haven't made it to Rye, which I'd like to partly because of the Lone Piners and partly because of Monica Edwards ...
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Re: Looking For Fatty

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

[Lenoir:] Perhaps he was in Tippylooloo that day, or maybe he was in disguise! :)
:lol: :lol:
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Re: Looking For Fatty

Post by Belly »

Hi Anita

I know the area you are talking about well as we nearly bought the house in Coldmoorholme Lane that backs onto the railway line, do you know the one I mean? It is in the development of barn like buildings? I think it's called Spade Oak farmhouse and it was still on the market last time I looked. A lovey house but very at risk of flooding especially in these times of global warming! I often feel my life has mirrored Enid's in that we nearly moved to Beaconsfield, in Ledborough Lane, and then there! Now v different of course as not in the UK.

I always imagine Pip, Fatty, etc to have lived in the houses around the Avenue? I think it is called The Avenue? Detached house bulit around 1920-35. There is also a road called Riversdale that has few detached houses that date back to the 19th Century in some cases. One of which is called Toad Hall and looks very much like Toad Hall!
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Re: Looking For Fatty

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Hi Belly,

Yes, I remember that house at the end of Coldmoorholme Lane! I've been down the lane twice and I must admit I wondered about the possibility of flooding. I think Old Thatch was flooded once or twice when Enid Blyton lived there.

Anita
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Re: Looking For Fatty

Post by Viking Star »

Thanks for taking the time to share all that info, Green Hedges. Fascinating! :D

An obvious question to ask is whether one of the two houses you think might be the inspiration for Fatty's was actually white (as in White House where he lived). Presumably not or you would have spotted it immediately.

Pip refers to White House as 'that small house'. Were either of the two houses small? Of course, when you consider the size of Pip's house, probably almost all the others were small in comparison! Also, considering the description of Fatty's house in later books, which had room to accommodate guests and servants, and several attic rooms, it couldn't have been that small. :roll:

I couldn't work out on the map/satellite picture precisely which lane you were referring to re. Fatty's house, but I am planning to visit Bourne End soon, so hopefully will be able to work it out then!

Thanks again.

PS. I've just noticed another clue to the whereabouts of Fatty's house in Hidden House, when the other children follow Ern from the station: they are surprised that Ern (who they believe to be Fatty in disguise) 'took the wrong road and walked not to his house, but to the village'.
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Re: Looking For Fatty

Post by Green Hedges »

Thanks all for these responses.

I wonder if you've made your trip to Bourne End yet, Lucky Star? Do tell us how it goes.

Both the times when the children go from the station to Fatty's house (in Hidden House and Holly Lane) are tantalising. Are the two sets of directions consistent with each other? Are they consistent with other clues given to the location of Fatty's house? I haven't decided yet.

My own visit that I refer to in the original post was a flying one. I literally did not have time to pause in front of the two houses I identify in that first post, as I had so much to get through that day. How frustrating. Hopefully you will get a chance to assess them, Lucky Star. You can't miss the 'lane' at the back of the houses, but just remember it is very narrow, maybe three feet wide with fencing on either side. Just walking through it will put you in Find-Outer mode. In the meantime, maybe try again with the satellite? It's pretty clear!

I've had a chance to re-read the first few Mysteries from a geographic point of view. So here are a few observations:

It's now obvious to me what an important book 'The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage' was to its author, which I'll try and show in this post. Rather than being a book focussed on Bourne End, it's a book focussed on Coldmoorholme Lane at the very west edge of Bourne End! A careful reading reveals that all the children live in the same lane in that book. Fatty is there at the inn/hotel temporarily. Pip and Bets live in a house up the lane from Mr Hick's house (which from now on I'm going to call Old Thatch for reasons that will become clear further into this post). Larry and Bets live further up the lane. When I say 'up' the lane, that means further north, further away from the river. Enid always seems to be consistent with her references to 'up' the lane and 'down' the lane.

Before I go on with this analysis, I should say that in Looking For Enid I argue that Goon is Enid's revenge on her first husband, Hugh. I think she only became aware of the link when she christened Goon as 'Theophilus' well into the second book of the series. These first two books seem to have been tentatively exploring a new area and were, as it turned out, SUBJECT TO HER REVISION. Fatty is not fully fleshed out (pardon the pun). No, Fatty is not yet wonderful Fatty, the Find-Outers leader, but just a cheeky boy with a nice dog. The children are not yet in their settled homes. The second book could almost be said to be located at Green Hedges, Beaconsfield as all the action goes on in Pip and Bets garden and the adjoining garden, with Old Tapping/Old Tupping, being a very unsubtle reference to Enid's gardener at Green Hedges.

I now think that in the first book in the series, the whole story is an investigation-cum-attack on the relationship of Hugh and Enid. Ho-ho!! In this book, Hugh is effectively Hick, living at Old Thatch. I know I mentioned in passing in the original posting to this thread that there is a possible anagrammatic (is that a word?) link between Hugh's chauffeur, Dick Hughes, and Mr Hick, but maybe this can be seen as a sort of Hugh and sub-Hugh morphing. Indeed maybe there is more such morphing going on, as several suspects in the case - the tramp, Mr Smellie, Horace Peek may have links to Hugh that could be argued. Speculation - what a wonderful pass-time! :)

Anyway, the scenes in Burnt Cottage where the children (Pip and Bets are the same ages as Gillian and Imogen were as Enid was writing the book in 1943, that is 12 and 8) visit the house to talk with the staff become especially interesting. There may be little clues to the set-up at either Old Thatch or Green Hedges.

Even more interesting is Bets visit to 'Old Thatch' on her own, having tracked Mr Hick via his distinctive shoes over a circuit that clearly refers to a real route between Old Thatch and the river, one that Enid may have been strongly attached to. There is no Mrs Hick in the Hick house, of course. Because Mrs Hick would be Enid and Enid would rather be present in the form of her Find-Outers, thank you very much. Yes, Enid would rather be Fatty, Daisy, Larry, Pip and Bets nosing around the place trying to work out who burned down something she was very fond of, and why.

Particularly intriguing is that scene when the kids are walking by the river and observe the incoming train from London. They work out how Hick pulled a fast one in order to do his dirty work. Maybe Enid used to look at that same train coming in from London and wonder whether that evening Hugh was going to be the husband she'd married in the 1920s or the drunk that he was turning into in the 1930s.

Blast, I have to leave it there for now. I'll try and go into the geography of Peterswood, the location of the three homes of the Find-Outers, as revealed by the first seven books in the series, in a subsequent post.

Spity. :wink:

Duncan
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Re: Looking For Fatty

Post by Green Hedges »

On re-reading the last post I realise I have muddled Lucky Star with Viking Star. Apologies to you both. When will I learn to correctly and unambiguously identify people!

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Re: Looking For Fatty

Post by Viking Star »

Green Hedges wrote:On re-reading the last post I realise I have muddled Lucky Star with Viking Star. Apologies to you both. When will I learn to correctly and unambiguously identify people!

Green Hedges
Well that's spoilt my intended post about why do people always confuse the two of us, when in fact we're not really alike at all! :wink:

I haven't been to Bourne End yet, partly because of the weather :shock: and partly because David Cook has promised to show me round :D - but we haven't fixed a date yet (incidentally I sent him a copy of this string).

I'll get on to it! 8)
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Re: Looking For Fatty

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Let us know how your investigations go, Viking Star! And didn't you promise us another installment of The Mystery of Mangerton Cottage? :)

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Re: Looking For Fatty

Post by Viking Star »

Oops! :oops:

That's been on my mind a lot, but I hadn't realised that I had publicly mentioned anything about it! :oops:

I'll post something in the appropriate place later today, and look forward to a nice piece of birthday cake! :wink:
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