Sarah Siddons' House

The village of Lydbrook stands in the Wye Valley, on the edge of the Forest of Dean. In the mid-18th century, the village was reputedly the home of Roger Kemble, an actor-manager and patriarch of the Kemble family.^[1] His most famous child, Sarah was born at Brecon in 1755, while her father's company, the Warwickshire Company of Comedians was on tour in Wales.^[2] In the 19th century, the tradition developed that Sarah was bought up in the cottage at Lydbrook, where Roger Kemble was known to have owned property.^[3] Siddons went on to become "the country's finest tragic actress", dying in London in 1831.^[4][a]

The cottage dates from the 16th century. Alan Brooks, in the revised 2002 Gloucestershire volume of Pevsner's Buildings of England series, describes it as a "good timber-framed house".^[7] There is an extension to the side dated 1718.^[7] The timber frame is infilled with brick nogging to the front. The cottage is a Grade II* listed building.^[8]