Fordham Market

Fictional East Hertfordshire village in which most of the events in Who Was Nightshade? take place.

Fordham Market is the principal dramatic centre: a small rural community in Hertfordshire in 1963, presented through its social hierarchy, gossip and constrained geography. It is described as a village with a high street, a railway station, a parish church, a cricket ground, allotments, a recreation ground, a pub, a butcher’s shop and several substantial country houses. Its physical limits are repeatedly crossed by characters who know the informal paths better than the official roads.

The village concentrates the manuscript’s domestic and social conflicts. Richard Warren’s inherited status as the effective “lord of the manor” is set against his financial weakness and dependence on local opinion. The Fox acts as the village’s social clearing-house, while The Priory and Wyvern Hall represent competing versions of inherited authority. The Croft provides a more informal domestic centre, particularly for Peter and Flo. The railway cutting and its den offer the young characters a space outside adult supervision, while also giving them a concealed vantage point over the Wyvern estate.

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