The Tolkien Trail
1) Sarehole Mile
Ronald and his brother spent many an hour investigating Sarehole Mill and being
chased off by the miller´s son, whom they nicknamend the “White
Ogre”. In the 1960s, Tolkien contributed to a public appeal to restore
the Mill which had become dilapidated. Sarehole Mile is now a museum managed
by Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.
2) 264 Wake Green Roald
Tolkien said that the times he spent at Sarehole Mile were the happiest years
of his youth. His mother moved there shortly after his house was built in 1896.
Sarehole is said to have been the model for “The Shire”, the home
of the Hobbits. Memories of this rural childhood were to colour much of his
later writing.
3) Moseley Bog
Tolkien later lamented the encroachment of the suburbs upon his former home
but there is one place that civilization missed: Moseley Bog. The bog was an
ideal place for Tolkien´s childhood adventures. It was once a mill pool,
probably a storage pool for Sarehole Mile, and it also the site of two Bronze
Age burnt mounds. These heatshattered stones, used to heat water for cooking,
are evidence that the site was once inhabited. The bog is recalled in Tolkiens
description of the Old Forest, last of the primeval wild woods, where Tom Bombadil
lived. It is now preserved as a local Nature Reserve and is shortly to be leased
from Birmingham City Council by the Birmingham & Black County Wildlife Trust.
The site can be accessed, by car, from an entrance on Yardley Wood RD and on
foot, via Wake Green Playing Fields.
4) St Annes Church
When Tolkiens mother became a Catholic, the family worshipped at St Annes Alcester
Street. The church was new having been built in 1884 to replace Cardinal Newmans
original chapel. Tolkien was to follow the faith adopted by his mother for the
rest of his life. Open during service hours and by appointment.
5) The Oratory
In 1920, Mabel Tolkiens search for a sympathetic church led her to Cardinal
Newmans community on the Hagley Road. The family lived nearby in Oliver Road
and, for a time, Ronald was enrolled at St. Phillips School in the same street.
The friendship of Father Francis Xavier Morgan, who became the boys guardian,
was a source of strength during Mabels illness and subsequent death.
6) Perrott´s Folly
This extraordinary 96 ft (30m) tower is named after the man who had it built
in 1758, John Perrott. It stands near a later Victorian tower, part of Edgbaston
Waterworks, and the pair are said to have suggested Minas Morgul and Minas Tirith,
the Two Towers of Gondor, after which the second volume of Lord of the Rings
is named.
7) Sam Gamgee
Tolkien used the name Sam Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings for Frodos faithful
companion and the last of the ring-bearers. He probably came across Gamgee tissue
as the local name for cotton wool which was invented by a Birmingham surgeon,
Dr. Joseph Sampson Gamgee, whose widow lived opposite Tolkiens aunt in Stirling
Road.
8) 4 Highfield Road
At his previous lodgings in Duchess Road, Tolkien had met and fallen in love
with Edit Bratt, who was to become his wife. He was only 16 at the time and
Father Morgan attempted to put an end to the relationship by moving the two
boys the Highfield Road. It was Tolkiens last Birmingham address.
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