The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is this Christmas’ hotly anticipated big blockbuster. Out in cinemas today, the film follows the plot laid out by J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic novel The Hobbit, in which Bilbo Baggins is set a quest to find a hoard of treasure guarded by an evil dragon, Smaug.
The desolate wastelands, eerie forests and wild waters that Bilbo discovers on his journey might have been filmed in New Zealand, but the Birmingham-raised and Oxford-educated author found inspiration for his fantasy adventures much closer to home.
Here, VisitEngland picks out some of the country’s sites and attractions that shaped Tolkien’s stories and characters.
Birmingham: Childhood Memories and Mysterious Lands 
auspices, Flickr
J.R.R. Tolkien first moved to England aged three, when the family relocated from South Africa to King’s Heath just outside Birmingham. Tolkien admitted that his writings had been greatly influenced by some of the places he grew up around in Birmingham. Just a short walk from the Tolkiens’ family house on Wake Green Road is Sarehole Mill, where Ronald (J.R.R) played with his sister Hilary as a child, now thought to be the inspiration behind The Shire.
Each May, a Middle Earth Weekend is held alongside the mill, in the Shire Country Park, to celebrate Tolkien and the area. In 1900 the family moved to Edgbaston. Tolkien fans will be familiar with the Two Towers, and it is believed that they were inspired by two buildings local to this area - Perrott’s Folly and Edgbaston Waterworks Tower.
To celebrate the release of the film, Birmingham Tours is running a guided Tolkien Tour on 15 December taking visitors on an `unexpected journey' around the city. Visit Sarehole Mill and Moseley Bog, which is recalled in Tolkien's description of the `Old Forest', last of the primeval wild woods, where Tom Bombadil lived.
Along the way, your guide will bring alive the background which led to the creation of Tolkien's fantasy novels. The tour costs £10 per person. For more info, email [email protected]
Oxford: Studies, Family Life and Final Resting Place
As a young man, Tolkien left Birmingham for Oxford, where he studied at Exeter College. There, he enjoyed the company of a group of like-minded men including C.S Lewis, and they formed a group called the Inklings. They met regularly in Oxford pubs the Eagle and Child and the Lamb and Flag. After graduating with First Class honours, Tolkien retained his ties with Oxford.
After the First World War, he worked on the Oxford English dictionary in the old Ashmolean Museum building. Tolkien returned to Oxford once again in 1925 and became professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College, a post he held for 20 years until elected professor of English.
During his time here, Tolkien wrote The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954). At this time, Tolkien lived with his wife at 20 Northmoor Road, where a blue plaque was erected in 2002. After his death in September 1973, J.R.R. Tolkien was buried next to his wife in Wolvercote Cemetery in Oxford.
Book a driver-guided tour of Tolkien’s Oxford and see houses where J.R.R. and his wife Edith lived, where they raised a family and where J.R.R. wrote his famous ‘Father Christmas letters’ to his children. Visit Exeter and Pembroke colleges, see where he worked on the Dictionary, and the pub in which he often sat and smoked his pipe during meetings with C.S Lewis. Finally, visit Tolkien’s final resting place. Tours from £30 per person.
Cheddar Gorge: Dramatic Landscapes and Inspirational Heights
In 1916, Tolkien married Edith Bratt, and the pair took a seven-day honeymoon beside the sea in the pretty Somerset town of Clevedon. Their visit included a visit to Cheddar Gorge, which left a deep impression on the writer. Tolkien wrote later that the caves provided the basis for the jewelled caverns that lay in the White Mountains behind Helm’s Deep in Rohan.
From April to September, an open-top double-decker bus takes visitors on a sightseeing tour through Cheddar Gorge, beneath rocky pinnacles and sheer rock faces. Take the 274 steps to the lookout tower for stunning views of this limestone countryside, before a 3-mile cliff-top walk around the country’s biggest gorge.
Forest of Dean: Ancient Trees and Woodland Floors
Tolkien was a frequent visitor to The Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, which has inspired some of Britain's most imaginative writers, from C.S Lewis (of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe fame) to JK Rowling (who was at School at Tutshill on the edge of the Forest). Tolkien helped to excavate Roman remains near Lydney at Lydney Park in 1929, shortly before he began work on The Hobbit.
There are several sites in this area where Roman opencast mining has left strange and mysterious landscapes, labyrinths of tunnels, grottos and tracks overgrown with mosses and ferns. The ancient woodland site of Puzzlewood is likely to have provided inspiration for Tolkien's fables and indeed, when the BBC’s The Big Read announced The Lord of the Rings as the UK’s best-loved book in 2003, TV presenter Ray Mears chose Puzzlewood as the location from which to read Tolkien's work.
Explore the maze of trails and pathways for yourselves on a family day out at the attraction, and discover secret caves and ancient trees. Adults £6,00; Children £4.50.
Northumberland: The Real Shire
Whether J.R.R. Tolkien ever visited Northumberland is unknown. But locals and tourism officials from the county were stunned to see a recognisable county view brought to fame by the promotional poster for Peter Jackson’s new blockbuster. Following the launch of the poster, a fan of The Hobbit and of Northumberland proclaimed that the poster showed Sir Ian McKellen’s character Gandalf standing against a backdrop of rolling Northumberland hills.
Corby’s Crag has long been a well-known Northumberland viewing point and is the point from which this image was taken. Visitors can take a 7.5-mile circular walk that takes in the best of this area’s sweeping views. Stand at Corby Crag, above Alnwick, looking west towards Edlingham Castle and the Simonside Hills and recreate the scene for yourself (wizard’s beard and Staff optional).
Have you seen The Hobbit yet? Tell us what you think of the movie in the comments below or tweet us @FemaleFirst_UK
FemaleFirst
Shabana Adam @Shabs_A
Tagged in The Hobbit England Travel films travel tips Movies Travel Advice