Indeed, for anyone who wants to make a pilgrimage, a memorial to Sewell stands at the junction of Constitution Hill and St Clement’s Hill in Norwich. The barn still stands and is now the venue for the Sewell Barn Theatre. Used to pull his carriage up and down the Spixworth Road, Bess was kept in a barn that is understood to have informed Sewell’s image of Black Beauty’s stable. Philip owned land nearby, at Clare House, where he kept a horse named Black Bess. Gavin, author of a biography of Sewell entitled Dark Horse.Īt the time, Old Catton was a village on the edge of Norwich. ‘Norfolk was the county of her birth, death and family heritage,’ explains Prof Adrienne E. Despite the various locations in which the novel unfolds, including London, where Black Beauty works as a cab horse, the novel is a clear tribute to the author’s connection to Norfolk. Told from the point of view of Black Beauty (Michael Morpurgo adopted the same story-telling device in War Horse), the book takes the reader on the horse’s life journey in both town and country. Initially published in the run up to Christmas 1877, by Norwich-based publisher Jarrold and Co, the childhood favourite has never been out of print. The fact that the title is still cherished enough to merit its listing proved a reminder of how powerful and moving Anna Sewell’s novel remains.

In 2017, a rare edition of Black Beauty went up for auction in Norfolk, in aid of the local Redwings Horse Sanctuary.

Country Life's Top 100 architects, builders, designers and gardenersĪ hymn to the horse, a comment on slavery, an ode to rural Norfolk: Anna Sewell’s enduringly popular novel is all this and more 200 years after its author’s birth, explains James Clarke.

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell