Tolkien's England: From Sarehole to Oxford

The family moved to Sarehole in 1896, and Tolkien lived within 300 yards of this mill. He said he used it as the Mill at Hobbiton in The Lord of the Rings, and the Shire is based partly on his childhood here. Recalling the place in 1966, he described "an old mill that really did grind corn with two millers" and a great big pond with swans on it. The current building dates from 1771 and was restored in 1969 after a community campaign.

Visitor guidance: Origins of Middle Earth tours explore the mill's surroundings and their Tolkien links.

Beside the mill lies the bog Tolkien enjoyed exploring as a boy. He acknowledged the site as inspiration for the ancient forests in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. In the book, the Old Forest is one of the few survivors of the primordial forests that once covered much of Eriador. The bog was known as The Dell until it became Moseley Bog, and it was declared a Local Nature Reserve on 17 July 1991.

Location precision: Tolkien never named a single tree or glade; the pin marks the nature reserve as a whole.

The Tolkien family moved to Edgbaston in 1902. It has been suggested, but not proven, that the towers of Perrott's Folly and Edgbaston Waterworks influenced the towers in his writing. The title The Two Towers is itself ambiguous, as five towers are named in the story; Tolkien once wrote that it would have to mean Orthanc and the Tower of Cirith Ungol. The folly was opened for a weekend celebrating Tolkien's life in May 2008.

Location precision: The link between the tower and Middle-earth is a popular suggestion that nobody has proven.

Tolkien returned to Oxford in October 1925 as Professor of Anglo-Saxon, and while living at 20 Northmoor Road in North Oxford he wrote The Hobbit and the first two volumes of The Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit was written for his own children and came to a publisher's attention in 1936. Tolkien equated the latitude of Hobbiton with that of Oxford. The house is private, so the pin marks the street only.

Location precision: The house itself is private; the pin marks Northmoor Road, not the doorstep.

Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams and others made up the Inklings, an Oxford writers' group. Their habit was to read aloud compositions of various kinds, and they met at lunchtime in a back parlour called the Rabbit Room. While Tolkien spent more than ten years on The Lord of the Rings he had the constant support of the Inklings, above all Lewis. After the 1962 modernisation the group moved to the Lamb & Flag across St Giles'. The pub has been closed since March 2020.