WHEN the Queen of Crime Fiction, Agatha Christie went missing in 1926 she created a real-life mystery.

Disappearing from her Berkshire home, she turned up 11 days later in a Yorkshire hotel claiming to have suffered from amnesia. The case of the missing crime writer made headlines at the time, as nobody seemed to know where she had been hiding.

But while Agatha may have taken the details of her disappearance to the grave, it has since emerged that the key to the mystery lies at the grandiose and imposing Abney Hall, in the heart of Cheadle.

Home to Agatha's brother-in-law James Watts, Abney created a secret hide-away for the publicity-shy author.

And it was not the first time the stately hall offered a haven to the rich and famous ' Gladstone, Disraeli, EM Forster and even Prince Albert all stayed there.

Now, another of Abney's well-kept secrets has been revealed.

Hidden away behind the 19th century hall is one of only two private houses on the estate.

The Gardener's Cottage was constructed in 1846, the same time as the main hall by the eminent Watts family.

Over the years it has housed generations of gardeners, servants, and cooks who worked at the big house. Now, after painstaking renovation work, it is on the market, complete with its own Victorian walled garden and access to Abney's extensive woodland grounds.

Owner Lesley Lyle says transforming the cottage to its former glory has been a labour of love.

'It's taken me a year to get to this stage of letting go of the cottage but I have to move,' she says.

'When I first saw the cottage I fell in love with it ' I hadn't even anticipated moving house but it was just so wonderful I had to buy it. When we moved in, in 1996, it needed a lot of TLC but I have really tried to maintain the character. It's quite big for a cottage. It must have been quite an accomplishment to be the head gardener. I've decorated inside but the main work has been the garden ' it was overgrown. Over the years we have managed to hack that back and put the original Victorian path in.

'I knew nothing about gardens when I moved in but all the plants I have chosen are Victorian. The Watts family were very adventurous and they brought all sorts of exotic plants into the country.

'Originally the walled garden was planted up with peach and lime trees because it is a south facing. I have managed to get the basics done, an experienced gardener could make it into something wonderful.'

Lesley has researched the history of the cottage through census records and has carried out all renovations with its Victorian origins in mind.

Though less stately than the imposing Abney Hall, whose interior was designed by A N N Pugin who worked on the Houses of Parliament, the cottage has a definite chocolate-box appeal.

Original features include the arched front doorway, fireplaces in the downstairs reception rooms and stained glass windows. Renovations to the bathroom have introduced modern amenities but kept a Victorian flavour with the claw-foot enamel bath. But it is the original walled garden, with its secret doorway to the hall's old formal gardens that steals the show.

'It's wonderful because Cheadle is very urban but when you look out from any window you would think you were in the countryside,' says Lesley.

"You are half a mile from the main road and totally secluded. Some people who have lived in Cheadle all their life don't know this cottage exists. One lady told me her grandma used to say it was Red Riding Hood's cottage and now she tells her grand-daughter the same tale.

'When Agatha Christie was a young girl she used to play in the tower at the end of our garden. It was only a ventilation tower but to her it must have been like something a princess would live in.'

The house is on the market with a guide price of '395,000.

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