Anna Sewell Memorial

Black Beauty author commemorated

A native of Great Yarmouth, the author of Black Beauty in fact lived much of her life in London, but it’s in Norwich that Anna Sewell spent the last years of her life and here she is best remembered. As a child, she came to the city and to Norfolk often, visiting her grandparents in Buxton, where she learned to ride, and it was here that she wrote her famous book, shortly before her death in 1878 at the age of 58.

Anna Sewell’s mother Mary was a children’s author, but unfortunately her daughter was often ill, and crippled for much of her life after an accident as a teenager.The Sewells moved to Old Catton, on the fringes of the city, in 1871, partly because of Anna’s failing health but also to be near her brother Philip, who was recently widowed. It was here that she began work on Black Beauty, or ‘The Autobiography of a Horse’ as it was sub-titled. The book drew on her love of her horses and her wish to expose the various cruelties to which they were often exposed. Mostly bed-ridden during these years, she spent around five years working on the book, which was eventually published by Jarrolds in 1877 (see ch. 46), just five months before she died. It quickly became a classic, read by both adults and children, and is still in print today, having sold around 50 million copies and inspired around a dozen film and TV adaptations.

It’s a rather sad story, and partly because of that and the enduring popularity of her one and only book, Sewell is remembered in a number of ways in Norwich, in particular on the land once owned by Anna’s brother Philip, just north of the city centre. Here, the entrance to the triangular Sewell Park is marked by a memorial water trough, now filled with flowers, which was placed here in 1917 by Anna’s cousin Ada Sewell. A short walk north from here, the Sewell Barn Theatre is said to have once housed the horse that inspired Black Beauty.

Address Junction of Constitution Hill and St Clement’s Hill, Norwich NR3 4BA | Getting there Turquoise Bus 13 towards Old Catton and Spixworth goes right by. | Hours 24 hours | Tip Anna is buried in the Quaker Cemetery in Lamas, next door to Buxton, around nine miles north, where a memorial is set into the wall of what is now a private home.