Sarratt
Encyclopedia
Sarratt is a village and civil parish
in Hertfordshire
, England, on the border of the county with Buckinghamshire
. Sarratt is near Chesham
, and the River Chess
passes through the village.
The flint and brick Church of the Holy Cross was founded in 1190 in the hamlet of Sarratt. From the 17th century a large linear village known as Sarratt Green developed nearly a mile away. It is now simply called Sarratt and the original hamlet is now known as Church End.
In the novels of John le Carré
, Sarratt was the fictional location of an agent training school and interrogation centre for the British intelligence service, MI6. Le Carré and former KGB Colonel Mikhail Lyubimov contributed stories to Sarratt and the Draper of Watford, a book published by Village Books in 1999 as a fund-raiser for village charities.
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...
in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, England, on the border of the county with Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
. Sarratt is near Chesham
Chesham
Chesham is a market town in the Chiltern Hills, Buckinghamshire, England. It is located 11 miles south-east of the county town of Aylesbury. Chesham is also a civil parish designated a town council within Chiltern district. It is situated in the Chess Valley and surrounded by farmland, as well as...
, and the River Chess
River Chess
The River Chess is a chalk stream which springs from Chesham, Buckinghamshire and runs through Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, in south-eastern England. The Chess, along with the Colne and Gade, gives rise to the name of the district of Three Rivers, in which it forms its confluence with the...
passes through the village.
The flint and brick Church of the Holy Cross was founded in 1190 in the hamlet of Sarratt. From the 17th century a large linear village known as Sarratt Green developed nearly a mile away. It is now simply called Sarratt and the original hamlet is now known as Church End.
In the novels of John le Carré
John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell , who writes under the name John le Carré, is an author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for MI5 and MI6, and began writing novels under the pseudonym "John le Carré"...
, Sarratt was the fictional location of an agent training school and interrogation centre for the British intelligence service, MI6. Le Carré and former KGB Colonel Mikhail Lyubimov contributed stories to Sarratt and the Draper of Watford, a book published by Village Books in 1999 as a fund-raiser for village charities.
Filming location
Sarratt has been used as a location in numerous television and film productions including@- the film Four Weddings and a FuneralFour Weddings and a FuneralFour Weddings and a Funeral is a 1994 British comedy film directed by Mike Newell. It was the first of several films by screenwriter Richard Curtis to feature Hugh Grant...
where the church was used as a filmset - the second series of children's BBC drama series The Demon HeadmasterThe Demon HeadmasterThe Demon Headmaster is a series of books by Gillian Cross which were later adapted as a television series starring Terrence Hardiman in the title role and Frances Amey as Dinah....
- Murder Most FoulMurder Most FoulMurder Most Foul is the third of four films made by MGM loosely based on novels by Agatha Christie and starring Margaret Rutherford as Miss Jane Marple, Bud Tingwell as Inspector Craddock, and Stringer Davis as Mr Stringer. The story is ostensibly based on the novel Mrs McGinty's Dead, but notably...
with Margaret RutherfordMargaret RutherfordDame Margaret Taylor Rutherford DBE was an English character actress, who first came to prominence following World War II in the film adaptations of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest...
as Miss MarpleMiss MarpleJane Marple, usually referred to as Miss Marple, is a fictional character appearing in twelve of Agatha Christie's crime novels and in twenty short stories. Miss Marple is an elderly spinster who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur detective. She is one of the most famous... - a BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
production of Just WilliamJust WilliamJust William is the first book of children's short stories about the young school boy William Brown, written by Richmal Crompton, and published in 1922. The book was the first in the series of William Brown books which was the basis for numerous television series, films and radio adaptations...
External links
- 'Parishes: Sarratt', A History of the County of Hertford Date accessed: 29 December 2006.
- Holy Cross Church Website