Sarehole () is an area in

Hall Green Hall Green is an area in southeast Birmingham, England, synonymous with the B28 postcode. It is also a council constituency, managed by its own district committee. Historically it lay within the county of Worcestershire. Politics Hall Green i ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Historically in

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, it was a small hamlet in the larger parish, and manor, of Yardley, which was transferred to

in 1911. Birmingham was classed as part of

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

until 1974, and since then has been part of the West Midlands. W. H. Duignan's ''Worcestershire Place Names'' conjectures that the name derives from

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

''Syrfe'', "

Service tree Service tree can refer to: * Species of ''Sorbus'', particularly: ** '' Sorbus domestica'' ** '' Sorbus latifolia'', service tree of Fontainebleau ** ''Sorbus torminalis'', wild service tree ** '' Sorbus pseudofennica'', Arran service tree See als ...

", and ''hyll'', "Hill". Sarehole gave its name to a farm (now built over) and a mill. It extended from the ford at Green Lane (now Green Road), southwards for about a mile, along the River Cole to the Dingles.

Birmingham City Council Birmingham City Council is the local government body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. It is the most populated local council area in the United Kingdom ...

has named the segment of the path along the Cole southwards from Sarehole Mill the '' John Morris Jones Walkway'' after a local historian.

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...

lived here as a child in the 1890s. The area influenced his description of the green and peaceful country of the Shire in his

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physi ...

s. The nearby

Moseley Bog Moseley Bog and Joy's Wood Local Nature Reserve, formerly The Dell, is a Local Nature Reserve in the Moseley area of Birmingham, England, with an area of about 12 ha (29 acres). History There are burnt mounds on the banks of the Coldbath Brook, ...

(now a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

) may have been the inspiration for the

Old Forest In J. R. R. Tolkien’s fictional universe of Middle-earth, the Old Forest was a daunting and ancient woodland just beyond the eastern borders of the Shire. Its first and main appearance in print was in ''The Fellowship of the Ring'', especia ...

. Tolkien stated: According to local legend, the hill on which

Spring Hill College Spring Hill College is a private, Jesuit college in Mobile, Alabama. It was founded in 1830 by Michael Portier, Bishop of Mobile. Along with being the oldest college or university in the state of Alabama, it was the first Catholic college in the ...

stands is criss-crossed with secret tunnels and could easily have become Tolkien's

Bag End Bag End is the underground dwelling of the Hobbits Bilbo and Frodo Baggins in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novels '' The Hobbit'' and '' The Lord of the Rings''. From there, both Bilbo and Frodo set out on their adventures, and both return ther ...

Sarehole Mill Sarehole Mill is a Grade II listed water mill, in an area once called Sarehole, on the River Cole in Hall Green, Birmingham, England. It is now run as a museum by the Birmingham Museums Trust. It is known for its association with J. R. R. Tol ...

, which also influenced the young Tolkien, is a water-driven

mill Mill may refer to: Science and technology * * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Textile mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...

, now a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

, within the

Shire Country Park The Shire Country Park () is a country park in the south of Birmingham, England, taking its name from Tolkien's The Shire. It consists of the Millstream Way following the course of the River Cole from Yardley Wood to Small Heath and includes ...

. During the 18th century the mill was leased by

Matthew Boulton Matthew Boulton (; 3 September 172817 August 1809) was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engin ...

, one of the pioneers of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

and leading figure of the

Lunar Society The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a British dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly between 1765 and 1813 ...

, for scientific experimentation.

References

Sources

* ''Hall Green and Hereabout'', John Morris JONES, ed. Michael Byrne 1989,
Birmingham Libraries Catalogue
* '' Here and Then - The past of Our District'', John Morris JONES,
Birmingham Libraries Catalogue

External links

Sarehole Mill

Sarehole and the Shire Park

Shire Country Park

Tolkien's Birmingham

* ttp://www.birmingham.gov.uk/GenerateContent?CONTENT_ITEM_ID=17314&CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE=7&MENU_ID=259 John Morris Jones Walkway {{lotr Areas of Birmingham, West Midlands