THINK Sherlock Holmes and most people conjure an image of the tall, gaunt figure in a deerstalker hat walking the fog-filled streets of London. While the world’s most famous detective may have been at home amongst the capital’s Victorian alleyways, his creator lived on the Hampshire coast and adored the tranquillity of the New Forest.

Yet Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s standing as one of the county’s literary giants, alongside Charles Dickens and Jane Austen, is often neglected – even by the super sleuth’s biggest fans.

Which is why a group of New Forest residents this week launched plans to commemorate the author with a full-sized bronze statue in the village of Minstead, where he is buried.

The villagers this week staged a series of celebrations, including the reading of one his plays and the laying of a wreath at his tombstone at All Saints Church graveyard, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth.

Resident Barry Olorenshaw revealed he had spoken to several renowned sculptors about his plans for the statue, which will either take pride of place on the village green or at the church where the writer was laid to rest.

“Hampshire celebrates its links with Conan Doyle far too little.

Of course we know all about Dickens and Austen, but Doyle is without doubt one of the county’s most important, prolific and internationally admired writers,” Mr Olorenshaw said.

“He was born in Edinburgh, but he was a man of Hampshire as far as I’m concerned.

He spent most of his time down here in the county and we’ve claimed him as our own because his remains are in our churchyard.”

The church member wants to launch a design competition in the near future and then approach funding bodies such as the Arts Council to pay for some of the estimated £40,000 cost.

Conan Doyle first thought of the detective and his adventures as he sat waiting for patients in his consulting room at 1, Bush Villas, Elm Grove, in Southsea.

Hampshire was often mentioned in Holmes’ adventures, as he travelled through the county’s countryside accompanied by the faithful Dr Watson. Landmarks in Winchester and Lyndhurst, as well as the Royal Victoria Hospital, in Netley, are all mentioned in various stories.

Even when he moved from Southsea, Hampshire remained a place for Conan Doyle’s family to relax and take a break from their hectic lives in London and at Crowborough in East Sussex.

Yet aside from the wreath-laying ceremony, there was little fanfare to celebrate Conan Doyle’s birthday yesterday.

The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, some of whose members made the pilgrimage to Minstead earlier this week, admit they have an uneasy relationship with the author.

Many play what is known worldwide as “The Great Game” – imagining Holmes was a historical person and his cases were real events. They resign Conan Doyle to being just his literary agent, while some refuse to acknowledge he ever existed.

“In the old days of the society we scarcely mentioned his name,” the group’s president Guy Marriott said.

“Conan Doyle wanted to be remembered for his heavily researched historical literature and he didn’t regard Sherlock Holmes as great literature, it was just an opportunity to make money.

“He has now been eclipsed by his creation – everybody knows Sherlock Holmes everywhere in the world, but the writer is not as well remembered.

“As a writer he suffered towards the end of his life because of his dedication to spiritualism and that still resonates a little today.”

Conan Doyle wanted to be rid of Holmes so badly that he killed him off in 1893, when he apparently fell to his death in The Final Problem.

Public outcry led him to bring the character back, using the explanation that Holmes had arranged to be temporarily “dead”. The scene of his “death”, the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland, is now as popular with Holmes fanatics as the official Baker Street museum.

“People forget that Doyle was not only responsible for Holmes, but he was a great writer in other areas too and a pretty good poet,” Mr Olorenshaw added.

“He wanted to write more serious work, but the public insisted that he bring back Holmes – he laughed all the way to the bank mind you.”