LymeLiving - OCTOBER 2026 - Edition_compressed (1) - Flipbook - Page 26
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NICOLA
KATHRENS:
STILL CREATING
NEARLY 30
YEARS ON
ICOLA Kathrens has never exactly
N taken the conventional route.
From a career in professional theatre to
one-off rare knitwear, bankruptcy, a sixweek journey through India and a fresh
creative chapter in Coombe Street – for
almost three decades, she has been making,
adapting and creating here in Lyme Regis.
For the past 17 years, she has done it from
the window of her Coombe Street studio,
and now Kathrens Knitwear is changing
again.
Beautiful gold lettering now adorns the
windows of the studio, announcing the
brand-new venture of 8Gallery Kathrens
Knitwear9, as the working studio is
expanded to include her paintings, mosaics
and distinctive handmade ceramics
alongside the bespoke knitwear pieces for
which she has become known.
The community in Lyme Regis fondly know
this creative genius as Nicca, and to truly
understand where the gallery is going, you
must venture back considerably further
than Coombe Street.
Born in Manchester and raised in
Weymouth, Nicca admits she didn9t
particularly shine at school.
She was sent to St Augustine9s Catholic
Primary School along with her two sisters,
and it wasn9t until she had been forcefully
persuaded to appear in a school production
of 8Toad of Toad Hall9, that her school years
started changing shape.
The very reluctant actress ended up
receiving a reward of recognition in front
of the entire school for her performance,
and that feeling of knowing she had done
something that stood out eventually
encouraged her to audition for drama
school.
LymeLiving - The Lyme Regis Town Council Magazine
Nicca trained at the Horniman Theatre
School in Manchester before heading to
London and beginning a professional
theatre career that would last around 15
years.
Nicca Kathrens
Reflecting on one of the busiest seasons
of her life, she said:
