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In the near-medium future I'd like to do some holidays with my family somewhere in England's countryside.
We don't have a favourite destination, so: why not visit a place that has some Tolkien references near it?

I suppouse the first place that comes to mind is to go to Oxford. I have to say, though, that I'm not a big fan of simply visiting "the house where X lived" if the content is not interesting. I prefer, for example, to walk to places that might have inspired him. Like landscapes that ressemble the Barrow-downs, or houses that might look like a smial.

Has any of you done any kind of "Tolkien tour" around England? Is there any province/region that seems more interesting than others?

Thanks for any recommendations!

There are a lot of Tolkien related places in Birmingham. Sarehole Mill, Perrot's Folly, The Oratory, Edgbaston Waterworks Tower.

http://visitbirmingham.com/what-to-do/h ... irmingham/
http://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/sys ... 0Trail.pdf

My wife and I are doing one this September, built around Oxonmoot. We're still finalizing our plans, and we're also fitting in some Jane Austen and Shakespeare and maybe Agatha Christie into them. Here's the list of sites we have in mind -- note that a couple are kind of dubious, and we're also not attempting to get any of the Wales sites into this trip:

St. Edward's Church: One of several churches whose doors are said to be an inspiration for the Hollin Gate. Probably not worth going to except it's mostly on the way.
Perrott's Folly: Near where Tolkien grew up; probably an inspiration for one of the Towers.
Edgbaston Waterworks Tower: Same as above, probably why there's Two Towers.
Shire Country Park: Named after Tolkien's Shire, not the other way around, but where he grew up.
Sarehole Mill: Converted to a Tolkien museum.
Bell Inn: the Prancing Pony's inspiration; we're staying a night.
Merton College: Tolkien taught here for 14 years.
Exeter College: Tolkien was an undergrad here.
Bodleian Library: Research library, has many of Tolkien's original manuscripts.
Addison's Walk: Footpath Tolkien often walked, and where he and Hugo Dyson converted C.S. Lewis.
University of Oxford Botanical Gardens: The pinus nigra here is the inspiration for the Ents.
Wolvercote Cemetary: Final resting place of J.R.R. and Edith.
The Eagle and Child: Meeting place of the Inklings.
Tolkien's Old House: You can't go inside since people live there.

Important to note that many of these places, there will be little to see, and less that still is anything like it was in Tolkien's day. Even while he lived, most of them stopped being what inspired the places he wrote about, which is part of what moved him to write about them. In many cases it's just something to see from the side of the road.

You may wish to pick up Humphrey Carpenter’s biography “The Inklings”, about the eponymous writers’ group that Tolkien was a part of at Oxford. Back in the day (I.e. the 1920s), the Inklings would do a country walk every year of several days’ duration, in a different location every year. The locations of some of those walks are mentioned in the book.

I’m planning a visit to the British Isles for my 50th birthday in 2020, and I’m definitely looking at following the path of one of those country walks, at least for a couple days. The only one I can remember offhand is the Wye Valley Walk, which one can still do, on the border of England and Wales. (I’m not at home right now & don’t have the book with me.)

I was amused to read that Professor Tolkien often served as the group’s ‘anchor’, wanting to linger over observations of the local flora and fauna, while the rest of the Inklings wanted to press on with their ambition of covering 20 miles a day. The descriptions of the Hobbits’ walk along the Road to Bree, and the countryside after as they ventured into the wild with Strider, was even more powerfully evocative after reading about the Inklings’ walks.

Thanks to all!

It seems, from the different linked places, that Oxford should be the centerpoint of it. Not everything is THAT interesting for me, but those places that are can be found there.

Cheers and thanks again. I'll post some pictures when I go there... and back again!

If it's more the feel of countryside or scenes that are Tolkienish in nature you want then below are perhaps evocative...

The Burial Mounds at Sutton Hoo.

Stane Street, Leper's Path and Gumber Lynchets, West Sussex - and old Roman Road and walk in the South of England.

The Roman Bath Houses in Bath (Aqua Sulis) for a sense of old Gondor maybe!? The whole town of Bath is a unesco world heritage site so might be worth a couple of days there or as a base for other visits in the south/ southwest Engaland or into Wales. Treat yourself to a day in the spa and on the roof top heated sauna pool! Take one of the free walking tours around the town and see the half moon and sun buildings that are linked together by design and full of architectural coded symbols.

The Ankerwyke Yew tree near Runnymeade (where the magna carta was signed), estimated to be 2500 years old.

The reconstructed Anglo-Saxon houses at West Stow.

How about the figure of the Giant cut into the side of the chalk hillside at Wilmington, Sussex.

Wayland's Smithy - an ancient stone site (English Heritage site) where magical stone smiths were believed to work in underground forges...

I can highly recommend some reading/research via the book 'The Real Middle earth' by Brian Bates.

Hope that helps

..oh - maybe the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall where you can see what looks to me like an entwife (called the Mud Maid):

http://twistedsifter.com/2012/11/mud-ma ... n-england/

Matt, that's all amazing!

And that picture of the Mud Maid really deserves an Entwife adventure for TOR...

Falenthal wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 25, 2018 12:06 pm

Matt, that's all amazing!

And that picture of the Mud Maid really deserves an Entwife adventure for TOR...

Ha - you're welcome - maybe I should set myself up as a tour guide for Hobbit Holidays - excursions to suit every Halfling pocket.

The mud maid could be one of the Goddesses - Yavanna maybe?

Some of the apparent battle sites for King Arthur versus the Saxons might also be worth a look (baden Hill and Camlann I think). Tintagel, Bodmin Moor and Merlin's Oak.

Long post warning, but it has a lot of details that will help decide where to go...


Over the last few years I’ve been tracking down places associated with Tolkien and his works. I’d highly recommend that Birmingham Tolkien Trail linked above (it’s a downloadable pdf), it gives you the main sites in Birmingham associated with him.

I’d say musts are the Oratory in Birmingham - it’s an essential part of the story of his meeting his wife, Edith. I’d note that both Perrot's Folly and Edgbaston Waterworks Tower are frowned upon as influences for the “Two Towers” by the Tolkien Society, but they are extremely close to the Oratory so if you go there, worth a look. Note there could be services on at the Oratory, might be worth checking ahead. I went on an Open Day and there were still services ongoing.
Oratory website: http://www.birminghamoratory.org.uk/abo ... e-oratory/

Sarehole Mill (you can get a train from city centre Birmingham – note not from New Street though) and the surrounding area heavily influenced him – Tolkien states Sarehole was the inspiration for Hobbiton in one of his letters, especially the Mill. Tolkien’s brother Hilary published a book called the “Black & White Ogre country” – based on a local farmer and the Miller (from Sarehole Mill).

The nearby Moseley Bog inspired the Old Forest. It’s a short walk from Sarehole Mill.
Website for Moseley Bog (including map): http://www.bbcwildlife.org.uk/moseley-bog-joys-wood

Sarehole Mill run a walking tour called “The Origins of Middle Earth” that covers the Mill and Moseley Bog, as well as one of the houses the family lived in. They are usually fixed dates, but it might be worth contacting the Mill in advance to see if they can put one on for you especially - http://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/sar ... 4b73acc5ad


Nearby (walking distance) Sarehole Mill are two other inspired-places (note not inspirations):
Hobbit Café - https://www.facebook.com/hungryhobbitz/
Hall Green library: https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/directory ... en_library
Hall Green library has some nice Tolkien books inside but also some great decorations outside linked with Tolkien’s works – a dragon bench and story panels on the exterior wall.
In fact when I visit Sarehole Mill for the Middle-earth festival (in September), it’s Hall Green station I get off at to walk down.

You can see a lot of the sites here, from my last visit to the area: https://www.flickr.com/photos/131304644 ... 8859575705

Now for Oxford…

The Eagle and Child is a must! Just past the bar where you get served is the “Rabbit room” where the Inklings used to sit. The pub is bigger now, so it continues onwards after this room, whereas in Tolkien’s day I believe that was a dead end.

The Oxford Tourist Information Centre does a Tolkien/Lewis walking tour that is worth booking on - https://www.experienceoxfordshire.org/p ... ur-oxford/

You wanted Barrows? There is one linked with Tolkien just outside of Oxford.
It’s a place I finally got to visit last year which Tolkien talks about as a place he used to picnic with his family. It is called Wayland’s Smithy, along the prehistoric track called the Ridgeway.
Just a mile from this site is the famous Uffington White Horse, I am sure Tolkien knew of and visited here too.
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visi ... ds-smithy/
https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/ridgeway
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/white-horse-hill
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visi ... agon-hill/
Me not being a driver, I had to really plan getting there – basically I used a bus from Oxford to Wantage (birthplace of Anglo-Saxon king Alfred the Great who held back the Viking invasion and paved the way for England), then from Wantage I got a taxi to the car park at Uffington White horse. I walked the Ridgeway from there to Wayland’s Smithy, then back to the Uiffington White Horse. I then continued along the Ridgeway back to Wantage – that is a full day’s trip really, covering two sites and a long walk. There is a very infrequent bus going along close to the Uffington White Horse, but I found it not worth it.

So aside places associated with Tolkien, there is a MASSIVE reason to visit Oxford in 2018 for Tolkien… basically this –
https://tolkien.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/
Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth exhibition at the Weston Library (Bodliean), Oxford.
1 June – 28 October 2018
It’s £1 to get in with a pre-booked ticket. There are two fantastic-looking books being produced for it, with previously unreleased material on display and hopefully in the books. This is the first major Tolkien exhibition in years.

I’d say Oxford and Birmingham are a MUST!

But there is another…

So we got Beren and Luthien a few years back. Did you know there is a scene in there inspired by a real life event? Luthien sings in a glade which Beren sees and falls in love with her – Edith danced and sang for JRR in a hemlock Glade in a place called Roos, Yorkshire. They were there during WW1 after Tolkien got Trench Fever and was sent back to England. Unlike his friends, he survived the war because of this. He stayed in military hospitals in Hull and nearby on the coast, and when he was better he was stationed at various sites around there.
If you want to visit the sites associated with this period of Tolkien’s life, check here –
http://www.visithullandeastyorkshire.co ... angle.aspx
and read this article by Michael Flowers –
https://www.tolkiensociety.org/blog/201 ... ock-glade/
Michael took a small group of Tolkien fans to the various sites mentioned in his article. He was a brilliant guide. If you do plan to head that way, I have his contact details, if need be.
It was an amazing feeling standing in what is thought to be the glade where Tolkien sat many years ago, entranced by his wife, which inspired one of his favourite scenes.

Timb, this deserves opening a .doc and copying everything for future references!

Many, many thanks, mate.