A national blue plaque is being unveiled at the Gloucestershire home where the Rev W Awdry wrote his beloved Railway Series, marking 80 years since the first book introduced Thomas the Tank Engine to the world. The Historic England plaque has been installed at the redbrick house in Stroud, which Awdry named Sodor after the fictional island in his stories.
Awdry’s daughter, Veronica Chambers, said the family was delighted by the honour. “Father would have been very surprised,” she said. The unveiling ceremony coincides with Railway 200, a year of celebrations marking the bicentenary of the modern railway.
Awdry was a curate in Kings Norton, Birmingham, when The Three Railway Engines was published in 1945. On his retirement in 1965, he moved with his family to Stroud, where he continued to develop the world of Sodor. Chambers recalled that her father required a room for his study and another for a model railway, and saw his storytelling as an extension of his pastoral work.
Since Awdry’s death in 1997 at the age of 85, the popularity of Thomas has grown globally, helped by television adaptations. A stained glass window featuring the tank engine at St Mary Magdalene church in Stroud has become a point of pilgrimage for enthusiasts, including visitors from Japan.
Nigel Prenter, a Stroud district councillor, said his grandchildren were devoted readers. Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England, said the early books “laid the foundation for a global phenomenon,” while heritage minister Fiona Twycross praised Awdry’s work as an example of how railways can spark creativity.
