The birthplace of Black Beauty author Anna Sewell has opened to visitors as part of Redwings Horse Sanctuary.
The quaint building on Church Plain, Great Yarmouth, is a new education and outreach centre for the Norfolk-based charity which cares for more than 2,000 horses and donkeys across Britain.
Anna, who was born in the historic house in 1820, wrote Black Beauty to highlight the ill-treatment of working horses. Published by Jarrold in 1877, it became a publishing phenomenon, selling more than 50 million copies.
Now her birthplace has become a showcase for her work, and Redwings' mission, to stop cruelty to 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 it that they bought it – and their son, a horse-lover and Redwings supporter, has now leased it 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.
And she said that although the book is now thought of as a children’s novel, it was not written for children but for horse owners. Anna said she wanted to ‘induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses.'
“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,” said Gemma.
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, 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 as an adult Anna 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 heart-breaking, heart-warming story from carefree farm foal to beast-of-burden pulling carriages and carts for a succession of increasingly cruel owners. Finally he finds kindness again.
Anna wrote part of the book on slips of paper, dictating some to her mother, Mary, who was herself an author of best-selling children’s books.
Black Beauty far out-performed them all and has never been out of print but Anna died 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 her brother, there is a horse-trough memorial to the writer, and on the campus of nearby Sewell Park Academy is Sewell Barn, where the horse which inspired Black Beauty once lived.
The little house on Church Plain, Yarmouth, is the latest memorial to Anna. It has been a home, shop, restaurant, café, offices and a Christian charity offering free meals and a place of safety - as well as being a place of pilgrimage for Black Beauty fans.
Now, every Wednesday and Friday, Redwings volunteers will reveal the inside of historic half-timbered Anna Sewell House.
Visitors can discover how Redwings is continuing Anna's work and marvel at Black Beauty memorabilia including dozens of different editions of the book loaned by a collector and Redwings supporter.
From the tiny downstairs room, steep stairs lead to a single-room first floor, with views over the green below. Up another precipitous staircase is the diminutive attic room but this is not yet part of the tour.
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 Norfolk's most important writers.
Anna Sewell House, Church Plain, Great Yarmouth, will be open for free 10am-2pm every Wednesday and Friday.
Redwings visitor centres at Aylsham and Caldecott, near Yarmouth, are open to the public every Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
