Mary Elizabeth Braddon Beverley

BLACK HOUSE FARM, BEVERLEY, YORKSHIRE
The house where Braddon wrote Three Times Dead (The Trail of the Serpent)
Photographs by Michael Flowers © 2001

In May 1857, Braddon spent six nights performing in Beverley at the Assembly Rooms with fellow company members from the Queen's Theatre, Hull. While in Beverley she made friends with the local newspaper proprietor, Mr. Ward, and he arranged the publication of her first work in print: a poem entitled 'Rest.'

It was probably at this time that she met her future literary patron, John Gilby (1821-1884). It was he who enabled her to leave the stage in 1860 and Braddon went to live in Beverley for six months (leaving for London at the end of October 1860) to write an already started locally published and set penny dreadful style serial, Three Times Dead (later adapted as the novel The Trail of the Serpent.

John Gilby lived in Beverley all his life, and his father had been the vicar of St. Mary's. A well known and successful race horse owner and trainer, he decided to pay for the publication of a book of poetry by Braddon, Garibaldi and Other Poems (1861). He lived at Newbegin House, and Braddon became a frequent visitor. Interested in botany, geology, and astronomy he possessed a large collection of books and fossils

During her six months of living in Beverley, Braddon lived with her mother firstly at a house in Beverley, and then, for the 'sake of seclusion,' she moved and spent the majority of the period at Black House, Long Lane, Beverley Parks (illustrated on this page). The owner of Black House was a farmer called Mr. Atkinson, and Braddon later paid tribute to him by placing him and the farm in her novel The Black Band. Gilby was a frequent visitor to Black House, and Braddon mixed with local society in the town.

Three Times Dead was issued in penny parts by the printer and bookseller Charles Empson of Toll Gavel. A road in the town was later named in Empson's honour.

In 1926, a road in Beverley was named after Braddon: Braddon Grove.

Black House Farm.

A view of Black House Farm from a distance, with Beverley Minster in the background.

Many thanks to Michael Flowers for taking the photographs. Michael is the owner of the Mrs. Henry Wood website, a link to which can be found on the recommended links page.

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