If there is one sign of the changing world and its effect on St. Mary Mead, it was the housing area aptly named the "Development." The world has changed because of two world wars, government policies and views, the "younger" generation and its views, and of women's lib. That world encroached on St. Mary Mead; there was still the Vicarage and the church, the Blue Boar was still there, even some of the same shops were there (with new windows and decorations), and the houses were kept the same because of their "old-world charm."
However, where Farmer Giles' cows roamed free in the meadows was now transformed into a development with modern housing complete with asphalt streets (each called a Close). The well-built, neatly painted houses were seen from the Market Basing Road, but up close for Miss Marple, the Development was an area that "hardly seemed real." Although the people were young, clothes were different, political views changed, and girls were more free-spirited, Jane Marple found that human beings were the same everywhere.
One of the residents of the Development was a plump and friendly woman named Heather Badcock. She and her husband visited Gossington Hall for a charity hosted by the movie star Marina Gregg; it was there that Heather Badcock was poisoned and died.