Someone please tell me this is a spoof

[wellinghall]

"JRR Tolkien inspired by family in Newcastle"
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/evening-chronicle-news/2010/11/26/jrr-tolkien-inspired-by-family-in-newcastle-72703-27721961/

Comments

[widsidh.livejournal.com]

Could be true (the end of the article sounds like a journalist overshooting the target, but the rest seems plausible.
Then again, it could be a good spoof ;-)

[muuranker.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say spoof (that suggests humurous intent).

The question is 'where did Tolkien get his knowledge of mines', I would look closer to Edgebaston, but the only thing that comes to mind are the South Wales coal trucks.

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

Mines? Lots of them in the black country ...

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Looks entirely credible to me... ;)

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

If true, this looks like an important find. The stuff at the end about Longshanks and the Border Reivers etc I've come across elsewhere [my never-ending Trotter research!] but it doesn't seem that this 'discovery' particularly lends any more credence to those theories.

[tree_and_leaf]

. 'Longshanks', the nickname of Edward I, is the only real person Tolkien mentioned in The Lord of the Rings.

*head-desk*