Did I hear somewhere that the decendants are not very happy witht he way hes being portrayed?
the mention of twin towers could have possabily be looking across lonbridge from the lickeys with one tower being the hospital at hollymoor and the other being lonbridge pumping station origonly by the longbridge island but gone now
She was his children's au pair I believe. Tolkien had read the sagas in English translation since childhood and had learned Old Norse, so he was able to greet her in Icelandic. https://guidetoiceland.is/connect-with-locals/sigrunthormar/tolkiens-icelandic-au-pairOn a visit to Iceland many years ago. We were told by the guide that Tolkien's nanny was Icelantic and she told him many of the folk-law stories that are passed down verbally through the families during the long winter nights. Those he eventually wrote down and that is were he got his stories.
This mentions the details you gave Dave. Afraid the quality of the clipping isn't great.A Blue Plaque was erected in 1997 to say that Tolkien had stayed at the Plough and Harrow Hotel, Hagley Road in June 1916. Also found a report that this was the night before he travelled to France to fight in the WW1 battlefields. Tolkien was 24 at the time. Is there still a Tolkien restaurant at the Plough and Harrow? Dave.
There are references to land at Sarehole going back at least to the 1760s and 1770s, so it was understood as a place that far back. Sarehole Farm was occupied by Matthew Boultons Snr and Jnr around that time. Wake Green was in Yardley Parish, whereas Moseley was part of Kings Norton Parish, so to call Wake Green Moseley Wake Green, which happened at least as far back as the early 19th century, is to import an 'alien' name into part of Yardley. In fact Sarehole near Swanshurst would have been just as good, although there is a reference to Sarehole near Hall Green in 1761!This photo taken 1905 of Gracewell Cottages shows a very different Wake Green Road to today. Source https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/directory_record/158748/gracewell_cottages
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I made no statement about the location of Gracewell Cottages. Parish boundaries shift. I think when Tolkien lived there it was Sarehole, a hamlet? But if anyone wants to find the modern location then Wake Green Road will find the house. See #103 above which shows the Moseley boundary and @superdad3 comments.There are references to land at Sarehole going back at least to the 1760s and 1770s, so it was understood as a place that far back. Sarehole Farm was occupied by Matthew Boultons Snr and Jnr around that time. Wake Green was in Yardley Parish, whereas Moseley was part of Kings Norton Parish, so to call Wake Green Moseley Wake Green, which happened at least as far back as the early 19th century, is to import an 'alien' name into part of Yardley. In fact Sarehole near Swanshurst would have been just as good, although there is a reference to Sarehole near Hall Green in 1761!
When I mentioned Yardley Parish I could have said instead the Manor of Yardley, which stretched from Yardley Wood to Lea Hall and lasted until 1911. I wasn't thinking of later church parish boundaries at all. Gracewell Cottages were in Yardley when built, and were there until they became part of Birmingham in 1911. Incidentally, Tolkien himself referred to Sarehole as similar to other Warwickshire villages. Sarehole was of course in Worcestershire, Yardley's parent county.I made no statement about the location of Gracewell Cottages. Parish boundaries shift. I think when Tolkien lived there it was Sarehole, a hamlet? But if anyone wants to find the modern location then Wake Green Road will find the house. See #103 above which shows the Moseley boundary and @superdad3 comments.
In fact, when the area came into Birmingham it was in Sparkhill Ward, not Moseley and Kings Heath Ward: see mapWhen I mentioned Yardley Parish I could have said instead the Manor of Yardley, which stretched from Yardley Wood to Lea Hall and lasted until 1911. I wasn't thinking of later church parish boundaries at all. Gracewell Cottages were in Yardley when built, and were there until they became part of Birmingham in 1911. Incidentally, Tolkien himself referred to Sarehole as similar to other Warwickshire villages. Sarehole was of course in Worcestershire, Yardley's parent county.
How far away was the border of Yardley? Belle Walk, Billesley Lane and the golf course, Hollybank Road. Not that close. Even in 1933 the River Cole was not a boundary. That came later. So historically Gracewell Cottages and Sarehole Mill etc. were part of the administrative area of Swanshurst Quarter in Yardley until 1911, and still that way in Sparkhill Ward in 1933, when the Cole ran down the centre of the Ward. See the attached map.Boundaries and local administration are notoriously difficult to follow. By the start of the 19C the Parish had long replaced the manor as the main administrative unit. During the Victorian period local administration in Yardley and elsewhere became increasingly complex with various agencies set up, all independant of each other. [eg Poor Law Union, Highways Board, Civil Registration, Sanitary Authority etc etc] It wasn't until 1894 that Yardley Rural District Council was set up and took over many of these responsibilities.
Wake Green used to straddle the parish boundary of Yardley (Worcestershire at the time) and Kings Norton. Gracewell Cottages when built were in a very rural part of what was part of Wake Green.
As Bill Dargue said, "Although the district was considered part of Moseley by the 18th century and often referred to as Moseley Wake Green or Moseley in Yardley, most of it actually lay within sub-manor of Greet which lay in Yardley manor".
When Gracewell Cottages were built, apart from Sarehole Mill And Sarehole Farm there was little else in the area. There was never a hamlet let alone a village called Sarehole. Here's part of the 1903 OS Map.
Technically therefore Tolkien lived in Yardley but in an area popularly long associated with Moseley.
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