Tolkien slept here

[wellinghall]

"Also in Birmingham, we ate at a pub where Tolkien stayed. Well, he lived above the Pub, he didn’t live in it… Anyway, I mention this because our guide pointed out the second floor of the pub, where Tolkien would have looked out, then looked away from the pub and pointed out two towers that were off in the distance…"
http://adamwestphal.blogspot.com/2011/01/birmingham.html

"Historically remote because of dense forests, many of which are unchanged today, this region was the inspiration for Tolkein when he wrote ‘The Lord of the Rings.’ "
http://www.howtoinvesttoday.com/2011/01/22/how-to-find-country-houses-lancashire/

Comments

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

The south east and the east Midlands are the only two parts of the British Isles, I think.

[tree_and_leaf]

dense forests, many of which are unchanged today

I was going to object to this, and then I clicked on the link and discovered that they also thought that Lancashire is in the northeast of England.

*head-desk*

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I had somehow missed that bit ...

[tree_and_leaf]

Well, you don't expect to see that sort of thing, after all!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I probably read it, but then erased it from my memory in a desperate effort to preserve my sanity ...

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

Sadly the first doesn't say which pub is making this claim, the bar at the Plough & Harrow? The Ivy Bush? Could it also be one of the houses that has been knocked down and a bar/restaurant built on the site (there's at least one a mile or less from the Waterworks, IIRC) - thus confusing the bar staff into making this claim?

As for the Lancashire one, that's the Stonyhurst Effect again. Actually someone was saying on the Festival in the Red pages that their next do should be around there.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

What are the Red pages?

(I'm probably just being dense here).

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

Try reading it as "Festival in the Red" ;-)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

:-)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought of it being a bar on the site of one of his former houses - that is at least a possibility.