World’s first stained glass blue plaque unveiled

A unique stained glass blue plaque has been unveiled in York to commemorate an acclaimed author with close connections to the area.

The plaque honours 18th Century writer and clergyman Laurence Sterne in the location where the first copies of his novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, were sold.

Funded by York Civic Trust to replace the original plaque, which was damaged during building works in 2022, the commemorative glass is the only one of its kind in the world.

It was installed on 26 September at the Oliver Bonas store on Stonegate, where the book was first published in 1759.

The building, number 35, was a bookshop in Sterne's day. The nine Tristram Shandy volumes have remained in print ever since.

The great-grandson of the Archbishop of York, Sterne had close connections to North Yorkshire.

He became vicar of Sutton-on-the-Forest in 1738, a position he held for 20 years.

After a period of time in London, he returned to live in Shandy Hall in Coxwold from 1760 until his death in 1768. The house is now a museum.

As well as playing a part in the city’s literary history, the building was occupied by renowned stained glass manufacturers J W Knowles & Sons for over a century.

Dr Duncan Marks, planning and heritage manager at York Civic Trust, said: “There are around a million plaques in the world and none of them has made the connection of making a blue plaque in stained glass.

“We have around 150 blue plaques around the city celebrating people and places, but the ones that are slightly different are the ones people are particularly drawn to.”

The plaque was designed and manufactured by local stained glass artists Barley Studio, celebrating the legacy of Sterne’s most radical work.

Dr Marks said: “Tristram Shandy is highly regarded and seen as the first modern novel because it’s very playful and idiosyncratic in ways that novels in the mid-18th Century really weren’t.

“To have that cornerstone of English literature here in York is something worth commemorating.”

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