Upwell

Her detective story The Nine Tailors (1934) - featuring the famous upper-class detective Lord Peter Wimsey - is set here. The book opens with Wimsey stranded in the fens and later involves bell-ringing at Fenchurch St. Peter Church - a fictionalised version of St. Peter and St. Paul's Church in Upwell.

Upwell Church from across the River Nene

Bell Ropes inside Upwell Church

Here is an extract from The Nine Tailors concerning the church's architecture - as seen through the eyes of Lord Peter Wimsey:

'At first glance he felt himself sobered and awe-stricken by the noble proportions of the church, in whose vast spaces the congregation - though a good one for so small a parish in the dead of a winter's night - seemed almost lost. The wide nave and shadowy aisles, the lofty span of the chancel arch - crossed, though not obscured, by the delicate fan-tracery and crenellated moulding of the screen - the intimate and cloistered loveliness of the chancel, with its pointed arcading, graceful ribbed vault and five narrow lancets, led his attention on and focused it upon the remote glow of the sanctuary.'

In the novels, Lord Wimsey's brother is called the Duke of Denver - a name which she no doubt drew from Denver which lies on the River Great Ouse. The sluice at Denver provides a crucial barrier against the North Sea - controlling the flow of water in and out of the surrounding fenland.

It is also thought that Upwell may have played a part in inspiring the Revd Wilbert Awdry to write the Thomas the Tank Engine books. Originally there was a tramway which ran from Wisbech to Upwell but it was closed by Dr Beeching in 1929. The Revd Awdry campaigned to set up a preservation society but the project was, unfortunately, unsuccessful.

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St. Peter and St. Paul's Church

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