Memories of Clare Routledge - Lamb's Cottage

Memories of Lambs Cottage (attached to, and behind Redcott) Norwich Road, Ludham

This story links Dame Athene Seyler (actor), Edward Seago (artist) , Cyril Thrower (Chair of the Parish Council, and owner of Thrower’s store) , Rider Haggard’s nephew Stephen and the cottage, with a part played by Heinz Bernard (actor)

The Cottage: Lambs Cottage was originally known simply as ‘The Cottage’ and the original building was a traditional Norfolk brick one up one down affair with an inglenook fireplace and winder staircase. A separate cottage was added some time later and eventually the two were knocked together.  On 30.1.62 Cyril Thrower sold Lambs Cottage, together with the middle section of the present garden, the garage in the courtyard and a shed  (formerly an outside toilet) to Athene Hannen. Covenants in the conveyance included the right to use the wash house (now part of 2 Church View) and the water pump in the courtyard. On 17.10.66 there was a conveyance between Edward Seago and Athene Hannen.  It is unclear what was conveyed – the entry on the Land Register refers to ‘the land tinted blue on the filed plan’, but there is no plan).

However it seems likely that this was the purchase of the orchard at the northern end of the present garden as it appears on later plans as owned by the house but there is no transaction recorded at the land registry effecting that transfer other than this entry.

On 12.7.71 Edward Seago gifted a house to Edward Chan Nam Tsui, and with the gift came the right to use the washhouse. It is believed that the property Edward Seago gifted was 1 Church View.

On 3.10.72 Athene Hannen sold the cottage to Peter and Henry Fowkes, brothers. Peter Fowkes was a solicitor living in Romford Essex.

Athene Hannen (b 31.5.1889 d 12.9.1990)

Dame Athene Seyler was an English actor whose forte was comedy. She had an unusual upbringing for the times (see the Wikipedia entry) and she certainly lived an unconventional life. I think Seyler was her maiden name, as she married James Bennett in 1914 and they had one child, a daughter, Joan.  It is not known what happened in her relationship with James Bennett (was he a casualty of the First World War, or did the marriage fail?)

In any event in 1922 she met Nicholas Hannen MBE, a fellow actor, who was already married to Muriel Morland.  Athene and Nicholas began a relationship which lasted until his death on 25 June 1972. His wife apparently refused to divorce him, and the couple had to wait until her death before they were able to marry in 1960. Athene changed her name to Hannen in 1928 but continued to use Seyler as her stage name throughout her career.

Wikipedia gives her place of birth and death as London, so it is probable that Lambs Cottage was her holiday home.

Athene Seyler and Stephen Haggard In 1943 a little book called ‘The Craft of Comedy’ was published.  The authors were Athene Seyler and Stephen Haggard. It is, in fact, the correspondence between them in which Stephen Haggard asked questions about comic acting, and Athene Seyler gave her answers. In the Note at the beginning of the book, she wrote: ‘At the moment when the first specimen pages of this book were sent to me by the publishers came the news of Stephen Haggard’s death on active service in Egypt.’

Wikipedia describes Stephen Haggard (b 21.3.1911 – d 25.2.1943) as an actor, writer and poet.

While serving in the Middle East, he fell in love with a married Egyptian woman; after some months she ended the relationship and on 25 February 1943, while travelling on a train between Cairo and Palestine, Stephen Haggard shot himself. His last film role, in 1942 was playing Lord Nelson in the film ‘The Young Mr Pitt’.

End Note

My father in law was Heinz Lowenstein, an actor whose stage name was Heinz Bernard. He was a Jew, born in Nuremberg on 22 December 1923, who was lucky enough to escape the Holocaust, arriving as a refugee in London shortly after war was declared in 1939. He trained at RADA and was at one time manager of Unity Theatre in London. Heinz was married to Nettie Lowenstein until his death on 18 December 1994. They lived throughout their married life in London, with Nettie remaining in their home, until dementia meant she could no longer live there.  She moved to the Old Vicarage Care Home in Ludham in early 2018. Telling my sister in law, Anna, about the history of the cottage, she remembered seeing  a copy of ‘The Craft of Comedy’ in her parents’ house, found it, and gave it to me. The inside page is inscribed "22 December 1964 With love to Heinz, Nettie". The book now resides in the little house once owned by its author. Nettie passed away in 2020.

There is more information about Heinz Bernard on Wikipedia

There is more about Lamb's cottage in the memories of Constance Reeve