Overstrand Village and Parish Council

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Sea Marge

Sea Marge has had a varied history over the past century - from Home to Hotel to Nursing Home and back to Hotel again.

In 1898 Sir Edgar Speyer, a wealthy London banker and another noted patron of the arts, purchased the land next to the ‘The Gables' - home of the Rev. G. S. Barrett, in what was then known as Cromer Road. Sir Edgar commissioned a noted architect of the day, Sir Arthur Blomfield to design a house with separate stables and coach house.

Constructed from authentic Elizabethan oak, tiles and brick, the property known as ‘Sea Marge' was completed by 1902 and that year Sir Edgar took up residence with his new young bride Leonora. The Kelly's Directory for that year gives Sea Marge as Sir Edgar's address.

After the death of the Rev. Barrett, Sir Edgar purchased the Gables and had it incorporated into Sea Marge. The Stables, laundry and a coach house designed by Blomfield were built in 1913 after his death, on land purchased several hundred yards away from Sea Marge at what is now known as Grange Gorman corner (junction of Mundesley and Highfield Road).

The original plans for the property drawn on linen, were discovered by the author in the home of a villager, the late Mrs Muriel Mount. The plans, bearing the stamp of the architect Arthur Blomfield MA RIBA were registered at the surveyors office in Edinburgh 1913.

Sea Marge Gallery

The Right Honourable, Sir Edgar Speyer was born September 7th 1862 in New York USA. Educated at Real Gymnasium, Frankfort-on Main, Germany. In 1884 he became a partner in his father's banking group: Speyer Bros - London, Speyer & Co - New York and Lazards Speyer-Ellissen - Frankfort-on-Main, Germany. He was a resident partner in the Frankfort firm until 1887, when he came to London to take direction of the London Banking House.

He became a naturalised British subject in 1893. In 1902 he married Lenora, a daughter of Count von Stosch and took up residence at Sea Marge. He was created a baronet in 1906 and a Privy Councillor in 1910. He became Chairman of The Underground Electric Railways Co. President of Poplar Hospital. One of the founders of the Whitechapel Art Gallery, member of King Edward's Hospital Fund, to which he donated £25,000 (a huge amount at that time).

Sir Edgar was Chairman of the Queen's Hall orchestra and was interested in music and art generally, he took part in a large number of charities and was a generous benefactor to the fisherman and old folk of Overstrand.

Speyer was Honorary Treasurer of the fund raised for Robert Scott's 1910 British Antarctic Expedition to which he donated £1,000 of the £40,000 required.

As he lay dying on 16th March 1912, Scott wrote to Sir Edgar Speyer, "My Dear Sir Edgar, We have been to the Pole and we shall die like gentlemen. If this diary is found it will show how we stuck by dying companions and fought the thing out until the end, I think this will show that the spirit of pluck and the power to endure has not passed out of our race. Do your best to have our people look after those dependant on us". Lady Speyer, Sir Edgar's widow, handed the letter to the American Admiral Richard Bird.

During the Great War of 1914-18 he came under a vast amount of personal attack from people whom should have known better. He was accused of spying, even of using Sea Marge to signal to German submarines. As a result Sir Edgar wrote to Lord Asquith, British Prime Minister, asking him to accept his resignation as a Privy Counsellor and to revoke his baronetcy. The Prime Minister's response was supportive: "I have known you to long, and well enough to estimate at their true value, these baseless and malignant imputations upon your loyalty to the British Crown. The King is not prepared to take any step such as you suggest in regard to the marks of distinction which you have received in recognition of public services and philanthropic munificence". Despite this support, Sir Edgar and his family returned to his birth place, New York, USA on 26 May 1915.

In 1921 following accusations of trading with the enemy during the war and actions not compatible with his British citizenship, Speyer's naturalisation was revoked by an order dated 1 December 1921 and on 13 December 1921 Speyer was struck off the list of the Privy Council. He was the last person to receive this punishment. By this revocation Lady Speyer and the couple's children lost their British Citizenship.

Sir Edger died 16 February 1932, following an operation in Berlin. He had continued to hold his baronetcy until his death. Whitaker's book printed 1932 recording the Peerage, Knightage and Companionage of the United Kingdom, states "Sir Edgar Speyer 1st Bt." However, even today one can still read articles that claim wrongly that he was stripped of his title.

Lady Leonora Speyer (nee von Stosch) 1872-1956 Born in Washington, D.C. She studied music in Brussels, Paris and Leipzig and played the violin professionally under the batons of Arthur Nikisch and others. After her return to America in 1915 she began writing poetry. She won the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her book of poems "Fiddler's Farewell".

Hotel Sea Marge

In 1932 Sea Marge along with the Coach House and Stables were sold to a Mr Gibbons of Leicestershire. Mr Gibbons with his wife and daughter moved into what had been the servants quarters of the Coach House and Stables.  Mr Gibbons then sold Sea Marge to a Mr Hartsharn who along with Gerald Varley, converted Sea Marge into what was claimed at the time (1935), to be the most fashionable hotel outside of London.

Again the outbreak of war, this time the second world war 1939-1945, was to influence Sea Marge's future.  Passing through several different owners hands, it closed as a hotel in 1955, after which it was used as an old people's home by the County Council. This too was eventually closed down and the lovely house was left to the ravages of time, with the villagers of Overstrand fearing for its future. The stables, coach house, laundry rooms and staff quarters, were converted into cottages and are today known as the Settlements.

Fortunately the building was purchased by the Mackenzie family who carefully restored Sea Marge back into the fine hotel and restaurant it is today.

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