James was once the last private owner of Abney Hall a substantial Victorian villa residence surrounded by a park in Cheadle, Stockport, England.

Watts is the brother-in-law of author Agatha Christie. Christie often visited the Hall and wrote two stories from there: the novel After the Funeral and the short story The Adventure of tghe Christmas Pudding.

The Hall was also used as a basis for Chimneys, a country house and seat of the fictional Marquesses of Caterham, in The Secret of Chimneys and The Seven Dials Mystery. Many references to various places around Cheadlecan be found in her books.

Vanessa Wagstaff writes, "Abney became Agatha's greatest inspiration for country-house life, with all the servants and grandeur which have been woven into her plots. The descriptions of the fictional Styles, Chimneys, Stoneygates and the other houses in her stories are mostly Abney in various forms.”

The Hall is now used as offices and it and it’s grounds are opened to the public.

[See a photo of Abney Hall in this database]