Nice Day for a Murder

Waking up to the English rarity of a clear blue sky and warm sunshine, murder – nay, multiple and grisly murders! – was the first thing that crossed my mind.

You see, Wallingford is one of several villages featured in the TV series Midsomer Murders; it was Inspector Barnaby’s home village of Causton. Both the Town Hall and the Corn Exchange (now a theatre) were used in the episodes “Death of a Hollow Man” and “Death of a Stranger”.

View from Wallingford Bridge to the Boat House
View from Wallingford Bridge to the Boat House

Fictional Midsomer’s perennially blue skies have always bothered me. It’s not so much the far-fetched notion that English summers actually look like this; it’s more that I’m baffled as to when they film the many outdoor scenes – those villages fêtes (worse than death), cricket on village greens, flower shows, garden parties et al. Each episode is 90 minutes long, and those scenes must take ages to film.

Speaking of mysteries, Wallingford has another claim to literary murder mystery fame: Dame Agatha Christie lived here (in Winterbrook House) from 1934 until her death in 1976, and it’s where she wrote many of her 80 novels.

Garden party

As if to underscore the Midsomer theme, Wallingford held a garden party in the Castle Gardens on Sunday, 14 August to celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday. It came complete with Her Worship the Mayor, a jolly good brass band, face-painting, all sorts of cake and even a Mr Whippy. Picnicking was encouraged, and beer and wine flowed discreetly. From the very young to the very old, everyone seemed to be having a good time.

Strangely, however, I saw not a single teenager at the garden party. Briefly, it occurred to me to hope that the teenage community was in good health, and had not been mysteriously done away with, à la Midsomer Murders.

Market town

Friday morning is street market day in Wallingford from 8.30am to 11.30am. There we scored nuts, a baguette, asparagus, orange vine tomatoes and a couple of those gorgeous little pagoda cauliflowers (£1.50 each) that we used to be able to buy in Singapore a few years ago, before they disappeared as mysteriously as they’d arrived.

Saturdays offer a small local producers’ market (10am to 1pm), including a fishmonger and a purveyor of artisanal cheeses made from unpasteurised milk – my latest biome-friendly thing.

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Farm-fresh pagoda cauliflowers from the Wallingford Street Market
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Verne Maree

Born and raised in Durban, South African Verne is a writer and editor. She and Roy met in Durban in 1992, got married four years later, and moved briefly to London in 2000 and then to Singapore a year later. After their 15 or 16 years on that amazing island, Roy retired in May 2016 from a long career in shipping. Now, instead of settling down and waiting to get old in just one place, we've devised a plan that includes exploring the waterways of France on our new boat, Karanja. And as Verne doesn't do winter, we'll spend the rest of the time between Singapore, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand - and whatever other interesting places beckon. Those round-the-world air-tickets look to be incredible value...

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