Maintaining Shandy Hall
As you might imagine, the care and maintenance of a Grade I listed building is a major challenge for The Laurence Sterne Trust.
Since its origins in the 15th century Shandy Hall has undergone continuous change, with each new family adapting the spaces to suit their own needs and preferences. It is a fascinating, intricate and, as yet, incomplete history.
When the Trust purchased Shandy Hall in 1967 to be a museum and a residence for the Curator the Trust began a programme of care and maintenance, a task that has no end!
All the rooms on the ground floor (apart from a functioning kitchen for current needs) are now open to visitors. We hope, one day, that we can extend public access to more rooms on the upper floor.
The old granary building was converted by the Trust into a gallery for exhibitions (upper floor) and an apartment on the ground floor for artist residencies. This project was generously supported by the Wolfson Foundation.
In 2020/21 we were forced to close Shandy Hall to visitors for Covid-19 related reasons. We used that period to carry out essential works that would have been disruptive during normal times. This included the repointing of the south facing wall (with generous support from Historic England) and the repair and redecoration Sterne’s Study.
We were also able to use the time to develop this new website.
We are deeply grateful for all the financial support we received at this time from: Arts Council England; the government’s Culture Recovery Fund, Job Retention Scheme and Small Business Grant Fund; Historic England; National Lottery Heritage Fund; and the generosity of individual donors.
If you would like to support our work in caring for Shandy Hall and ensure that it can be enjoyed by future generations please consider a donation. If you would like to donate for a specific purpose or project we would be delighted to hear from you.
