A PLAQUE commemorating an author often regarded as the ‘Queen of Crime thriller writers’ is to be installed on an old church tower in Clifton.
The 110 foot high tower of Emmanuel Church is still a significant landmark although the church itself was demolished long ago.
The church in Guthrie Road had a touch of literary fame on Christmas Eve 1914 when
the vicar found time to squeeze in between the festive services a wedding ceremony at short notice. It had been organised the day before when the bride and groom obtained a Special Licence from the Bishop of Bristol. The groom was on leave from the Royal Air Force at the time.
The bride was 24-year-old Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller from Torquay and her groom was Captain Archibald Christie, who gave his address as Guthrie Road, Clifton, where his stepfather lived and was a master at Clifton College.
Thus she became Mrs Agatha Christie, later Dame Agatha Christie DBE, and she went on to write more than seventy books, featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and the village spinster Miss Jane Marple.
The plaque, donated by Clifton and Hotwells Improvement, will be dedicated on March 2 at 11am by the Lord Lieutenant of Bristol Peaches Golding and Tim Sullivan, a thriller writer who was educated locally.
CHIS installs commemorative green plaques at buildings connected with notable people.
Emmanuel Churchm, which survived the Second World War bombing, was declared redundant by the Diocese of Bristol in the late 1960s. The tower was kept and incorporated into Emmanuel Court, a block of flats that stands on the exact site of the church. The flats were officially opened in 1982.