The historic Great Yarmouth house where Black Beauty author Anna Sewell was born, and which once faced being demolished and shipped to the USA, is now open to visitors as part of Norfolk-based Redwings Horse Sanctuary.
The beautiful old property on Church Plain is an ideal education and outreach base for the charity which cares for more than 2,000 horses, ponies, donkeys and mules across the country.
Anna wrote Black Beauty to highlight the ill-treatment of working horses, and the book became a publishing phenomenon, selling more than 50 million copies. Now her birthplace will showcase the modern-day continuation of her work to care for horses.
Decades ago Yarmouth almost lost Anna Sewell House when a Black Beauty fan wanted to dismantle the building and rebuild it in the USA. However, a local couple were so keen to protect its heritage they bought it – and now their son, a horse-lover and Redwings supporter, has leased the building to the charity.
Gemma Walpole of Redwings said: “We could not be more honoured to be able to look after this important building and use it to showcase Anna’s story and share how our work addresses the horse welfare challenges of today.”
Black Beauty was published by Jarrold in Norwich in 1877 and has never been out of print.
“Black Beauty is one of the most successful novels of all time with over 50 million copies sold worldwide and was one of the first to use an animal as a narrator,” said Gemma. “Although it has become famous primarily as a children’s novel, Anna didn’t write it for children. She said that her purpose was to ‘induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses’ in readers of all ages, and especially in horse owners.
“It’s so important to the owner of Anna Sewell House that the property be used in a way that’s a fitting legacy to Anna and her work to improve horse welfare, so it makes perfect sense for it to be a showcase for the work Redwings does today.”
The book was so influential that it prompted changes to horse-drawn taxi regulations and the outlawing of the cruel ‘bearing reign,’ used to keep horses’ heads fashionably, but painfully, high.
Anna was born in the house in 1820 but the family later moved to London where, aged 14, she fell and injured her ankles. Barely able to walk she became reliant on horse-drawn transport and developed a deep love of horses – which were essential in Victorian times for everything from farming to travel.
Anna and her brother Philip often returned to Norfolk to stay with their grandparents at their farm in Buxton, near Aylsham, and Anna learned to ride here.
As an adult she moved back to Norfolk and spent her final 10 years in a house in Spixworth Road, Old Catton, just north of Norwich. It was here, bed-bound and in pain, that she created perhaps the most famous fictional horse in history.
Black Beauty himself narrates his by turns heart-breaking, heart-warming life story from carefree farm foal to beast of burden pulling carriages and carts for a succession of increasingly cruel owners, until he finally finds kindness again.
Anna wrote the book on slips of paper, or dictated it to her mother, Mary, who was an author of best-selling children’s books.
But Black Beauty far out-performed them all. Anna never saw its success, dying (possibly of tuberculosis) just five months after its publication.
She was buried in the Quaker cemetery at Lammas near Buxton.
In Norwich, at the entrance to Sewell Park, on land once owned by Anna’s brother, there is a horse-trough memorial to Anna and on the campus of nearby Sewell Park Academy is Sewell Barn, where the horse which inspired Black Beauty once lived.
Yarmouth’s Anna Sewell House has previously been a shop, restaurant, café, offices and Christian charity offering free meals and a place of safety - as well as being a place of pilgrimage for Black Beauty fans.
It was officially opened by Great Yarmouth mayor Graham Plant (assisted by two ponies) on the 145th anniversary of the publication of Black Beauty. He said: “Anna Sewell House is an iconic building in our town with a rich history and important heritage. We are absolutely delighted that Redwings is the new guardian of the building.”
Now, every Wednesday and Friday volunteers and Redwings staff will show visitors around the tall, thin house, squeezed into Church Plain with its precipitous staircases leading to single-room first and attic floors with exposed beams, tiny leaded windows and views over the green below.
Visitors can discover how Redwings is continuing the work of the woman born in the house two centuries ago and marvel at Black Beauty memorabilia including dozens of different editions of the book loaned by a collector and Redwings supporter. An interactive timeline was designed by Norwich production studio We Are Immersive. And Gemma said Black Beauty is still on school reading lists today and she would love to see literary events and research at the birthplace of one of our most important writers.
Anna Sewell House, Church Plain, Great Yarmouth, will be open for free 10am-2pm, on Wednesdays and Fridays, plus for Great Yarmouth Christmas Fayre on December 2-3, 10am-7pm.
How to visit Redwings horse sanctuaries
The rescue of a pony called Sheba inspired the launch of Redwings Horse Sanctuary almost 40 years ago and the Norfolk-based charity now looks after more than 2,000 rescued horses and donkeys across the UK. It was recently named Charity of the Year at the Equestrian Business Awards.
Its Norfolk visitor centres at Aylsham and Caldecott, near Great Yarmouth, are open to the public and Redwings Aylsham has its own real-life Black Beauty in rescue horse Maya, who was nicknamed Black Beauty for her striking looks, friendly nature and triumph over adversity.
Redwings Aylsham and Redwings Caldecott are open every Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, 10am-4pm. Entry is free but donations are welcome and money raised in the cafes and gift shops, and via animal adoptions, go to the charity.
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