Tolkien Trail at Hurst Green, Lancashire (and ROW80 too)

Eeep! The deadline for the Surrey International Writers' Conference contest is this Friday!

If I call my story done (accomplishing an ROW80 goal!), it still needs at least two more read-throughs before I'll be ready to submit it.

I had a couple of detailed blog posts planned, including one on wacky Canadian stories and authors, but this week is another photo post.

One of the projects I've had hanging over my head is a guest post on our trip to Tolkien country in Lancashire. I've had the photos for quite a long time, and haven't managed to write the post. Instead, I'll share them here now, with a few brief headers.

 
Starting on the
Tolkien Trail, in Hurst Green, Ribble Valley, Lancashire...
 
Not the one in Oxford...
 
"As well as its links to J.R.R Tolkien, other literary figures associated with [Stonyhurst] college include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (a former pupil), the poet Fr. Gerard Manley Hopkins (a former member of staff ) and contemporary novelist Patrick McGrath."
 
Intriguing carvings in the gardens of a house near the college
 
Where Tolkien stayed when visiting his son
 
Can you see me?
 
Looking up, inside the tree's bole
 
Cromwell's Bridge

"Whatever the direct links which J.R.R. Tolkien used in his book, he certainly spent much of his time at Stonyhurst working on 'The Lord of the Rings' in a classroom on the upper gallery of the College. An Oxford Professor of Anglo Saxon and later of English Language and Literature, he even taught a few lessons at the College during his visits. Stonyhurst College is proud of its association with the author, which continued when his younger son Michael taught classics at the College and St Mary's Hall in the late 1960s and early 1970s. With the opening of a new Tolkien Library at St. Mary’s Hall in 2002, J.R.R. Tolkien's connection with Lancashire's Ribble Valley will live on for future generations."
 
Not a sound, except for the water and the calls of sheep
 
Looking out over the lands we'd crossed
 
Another day, in Warwick, at the pub!
 
The Warwick Church where Tolkien was married
 
Turkish beer in an English pub!
 
Farewell to Warwick, and England...

The map of the Tolkien Trail that we followed is available through the Visit Lancashire portal.

Which author's or other artist's footsteps have you followed before?

Comments

Beautiful countryside.
I hope you get that story done in time!
Crystal Collier said…
Very green. I like green.

Get reading, woman! You can do it! Sending cheese to speed you along.
sage said…
The English Countryside is lovely! I have taken a few author-inspired trips. When my daughter was 8, we did a Laurel Ingalls Wilder "Little House" trip and visited sites in Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and Kansas... I have also taken the same trip of Twain in Roughing It and many of Paul Theroux train trips.
It looks very peaceful there; it looks like the setting would definitely be conducive to writing. I especially like the picture of the house that Tolkien stayed in when he was visiting his son.
S.P. Bowers said…
You found an ending for your story? Wonderful!

Love the pictures. England was beautiful, I want to go back someday.
I really need to get over there. Those are some stunning photos, Denise!! Best of luck getting the story ready for the contest.
Zan Marie said…
Glorious pics, as always! And bit of "teacher face" awaits you if you don't get that story in, Deniz! ;-)
Hi Deniz - it's a lovely part of the world and I'm so pleased you were able to walk the route and now have the photos up to remind you ... Tolkein certainly weaved tales and threads of magic into this written world.

Cheers Hilary
Deniz Bevan said…
Thanks so much everyone!
Wish me luck, contest entered.......