Trust's Heritage Open Days scheme in September, and the grounds are open to the public all year round. The Hall is mostly locked to the public since recent years due to the offices, with hall owners Bruntwood renovating the hall in 2014 and APS relocating their offices into the hall in September 2014. During filming for BBC drama series Our Zoo in April 2014, flagstones surrounding Abney Hall were accidentally damaged. Developments continued on the hall's grounds, with the September 2015 opening of the Abney Court Care Home built in the former walled garden of Abney Hall. Agatha Christie The last private owner of Abney Hall was the great grandson of Sir James Watts (1804–1878). He was also named James Watts and was the only nephew of Agatha Christie; his father, also named James Watts, married Agatha's sister, Margaret Frary Miller, in 1902. Christie often visited the Hall and wrote two stories from there: the novel After the Funeral and the short story "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding", which is part of a collection of short stories of the same name. 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 (Christie dedicated this novel to her nephew) and The Seven Dials Mystery. Many references to various places around Cheadle can 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. Visitors Abney Hall has had numerous famous visitors, including: In 1857, Prince Albert visited the Hall during a two-day visit to Manchester and described it as "one of the most princely mansions in the neighbourhood". Agatha Christie's brother-in-law, James Watts, was the last private owner of the Hall and Christie often spent time there. Benjamin Disraeli E. M. Forster William Ewart Gladstone Grounds The park is a Local Nature Reserve. It was originally part of the Mersey flood plain, and much of the land is still very damp. This land has now formed wet meadows, which are becoming increasingly rare in Stockport as land is drained for development. Abney Hall is one of the few places in Stockport to feature such wetlands.