THE village is perhaps most famous as the former home and final resting place of author Agatha Christie.
The ‘Queen of Crime’ lived in Winterbrook House from 1934 until her death in 1976, and is buried alongside her archaeologist husband Max Mallowan in Cholsey Churchyard.
Earliest man settled in the area around the village while Saxon settlers in the 6th century AD gave Cholsey its name, meaning “Ceol’s Isle”.
Ceol (pronounced “chayol”) was an early king of the Gewisse, whose territory eventually became known as the sprawling Wessex.
Some of the houses marked in 1695 still survive and a few families can be traced back to the 17th century and beyond.
The 19th century saw the coming of Cholsey’s first school and shops, pubs and businesses thrived, while The Berkshire Asylum – later Fair Mile Hospital – expanded the village. It closed in 2003.
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