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| Sarehole | Tolkien Park | Exploratory meeting | Tolkien Centre proposal | Proposal update | Update 1998 | Site tour | Location | Tolkien Weekend |
December 2000
© The Tolkien Society, River Cole & Chinn Brook Conservation Group and Moseley Bog LNR Conservation Group
The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country
The Moseley Bog LNR Conservation Group
The River Cole and Chinn Book Conservation Group
Potential partners and supporting organisations
The Moseley LNR Conservation Group, the River Cole and Chinn Book Conservation Group, The Tolkien Society and The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country, (Tolkien Country Park Partners), wish to work in partnership to develop a Tolkien Country Park in Birmingham. The Millstream Project and a representative of the Tolkien family have been involved as observers during the process of developing these proposals.
At the heart of the project is the development of a Tolkien Centre on land close to Birmingham City Council's Sarehole Mill site. The Park is intended to be an internationally pre-eminent eco-tourism destination. The park and the values which underpin it will be of the quality Birmingham deserves. Tolkien Country Park Partners wish to bring into the partnership, or otherwise work with, the Tolkien Estate, other parts of Birmingham City Council, other not-for-profit agencies, government agencies, and the commercial sector.
The Tolkien Country Park Partners believe that this development should be sustainable, and encourage literacy, creativity, and respect for the environment. The proposed Tolkien Centre should be an environmentally friendly building. The Partners feel that the timetable for development should be set to capitalise on the release of The Lord of the Rings film (2001), and the fiftieth anniversary of the book (2004/5).
The Tolkien Country Park Partners believe that the development of the Tolkien Country Park and Sarehole Mill site should be based on five interrelated interpretative strands at two sites:
The Tolkien Centre will have three main elements, plus minor elements:
Minor elements include support space, meeting rooms/performance space/teaching space, shop, cafe, and garden.
The Tolkien Centre will
The Tolkien Country Park will link with the other tourism, recreation and education provision of Birmingham.
J.R.R. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa in 1892 of English parents. His paternal grandfather manufactured pianos in Birmingham. His maternal grandfather once owned a prosperous drapery business in Birmingham.
In 1896 when Tolkien was four his father died and he, together with his mother and younger brother, Hilary, came to live in 5 Gracewell, close to Sarehole Mill. Sarehole and the area around was to leave a lasting impression on both the young Tolkiens. The mill was to become the inspiration for the mill in Hobbiton in The Lord of the Rings, and the miller became Ted Sandyman, one of the hobbits of The Shire. Likewise an old farmer became Farmer Maggot another hobbit, both knowledgeable and important. Mushrooms are a notable hobbit delicacy, and these too feature in the boys memories of their lives here. One of the key characters in The Lord of the Rings is Sam Gamgee, who gets his name from Dr. Gamgee, a Birmingham man who had invented 'gamgee-tissue' a surgical dressing made from cotton wool. His name had become a household term in the district.
When, in 1900, Tolkien entered King Edward's School, Birmingham, the family moved to Moseley.
"'Four years,' wrote Ronald Tolkien, looking back in old age, 'but the longest-seeming and most formative part of my life.'" (Tolkien: A Biography, Humphrey Carpenter, 1977)
The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country was founded in 1980 from a group of local people who came together to support one another in their campaigns to protect threatened wildlife sites in their area, one being Moseley Bog in Birmingham.
From their campaigning there emerged the Urban Wildlife Trust which was the first wildlife trust in the country to be specifically concerned with identifying and protecting the natural conservation interest that existed and indeed still exists in urban areas.
It has now changed its name to The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country in order to identify itself with the area that it covers. The Trust is part of the national Wildlife Trust that covers the country and that is itself part of the Royal Society for Nature Conservation.
The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country is committed to the protection and maintenance and creation of local biodiversity and to sustainability in our life styles. It delivers this by way of educational techniques, campaigns etc. and by supporting local communities in protecting and maintaining their local areas. It also advises both the private and public sectors on natural environmental issues.
The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country fully supports both the concept of the Tolkien Centre and Tolkien Country Park as ways of bringing the importance of the need to protect our natural environment and to educate people about it, to the widest audience possible.
The Moseley Bog LNR Conservation Group was first known as Save Our Bog, and came into being in May 1980. In one month a 12,500 signature petition was presented to Birmingham city council planning committee to save land adjacent to Moseley Bog from development. In 1986, with an extended area of land added to the site, it was declared a Local Nature Reserve (LNR) by the City Council.
This campaign was the flagship of Urban Conservation and reports of it can be read in:
The site is mentioned in many guidebooks and specialist publications.
In 1984 the first Dawn Chorus Day event was held in Moseley Bog, this is now an international annual event held on the Sunday of the May Bank Holiday. This is often broadcast and televised.
In 1982 a c3000 year old Burnt Mound was discovered on the site; it is locally known as our Bronze Age Sauna. Reconstruction events, showing how the site was made and used, attract up to 200 visitors.
In 1998 an appeal was launched for a board walk to protect the Bronze Age sauna. The target has now been reached.
The group has a very high profile both locally and nationally, on radio and television, and in newspapers and magazines. Educational and environmental events held in the Bog enjoy good support.
The River Cole and Chinn Book Conservation Group was founded in 1985 with the support of local Councillors and residents of the Hall Green constituency, for the local residents and other interested parties who support the aims of the group.
These aims are:
As part of the delivery of these aims the Group has campaigned long and hard for a visitors centre opposite Sarehole Mill. Members voted to take this further by instructing their Officers and Committee to add to the campaign the designation of the whole area as the Tolkien Country Park and that the visitors centre should also be dedicated to Tolkien: as the landscape and natural environment that the Group wishes to protect helped to form some of Tolkiens thoughts and ideas that he would later incorporate into his books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
The Tolkien Society is a registered charity (Registered Charity No. 273809). It is run by elected and appointed officers, all of whom are volunteers. The elected officers are the officers of the Management Committee. The appointed officers are appointed by the Management Committee to assist in the running of specific areas of the society.
The Tolkien Society was formed in 1969 by Vera Chapman, herself an author, who felt that too much of the publicity then associated with Tolkien's name, was too closely connected to the extreme fringes of hippiedom and thus unrepresentative of the great majority of his readership, and that he deserved something better.
On June 27 1972 Vera Chapman had the pleasure of meeting J.R.R. Tolkien himself at a sherry party at his publisher's offices. He agreed to become the Honorary President of the Society, a post which, after his death, his family agreed that he should hold in perpetuo.
In March 1998 the Society published a Tolkien Centre Proposal, both in print and on the world wide web (http://tolkiensociety.org/).
The society publishes an annual journal, Mallorn, and a bimonthly newsletter, Amon Hen, and occasional extra publications, such as Seminar proceedings, by means of the Peter Roe Memorial Fund.
Both a Lending Library and an Archive are maintained (these are currently based in the houses of officers of the Society).
The Tolkien Society helps to bring together those with like minds, both formally and informally, with gatherings throughout the year. There are three such events at a national level: an Annual General Meeting and Dinner, the Seminar and Oxonmoot.
Annual General Meetings precede the Annual Dinner, at which Guest Speakers have included Rayner Unwin, two of Tolkien's children, Michael and Priscilla, and other members of his family, Humphrey Carpenter, Tom Shippey, Rob Inglis and A. N. Wilson.
The Seminar takes place in the summer with a programme of talks given on a Tolkien-related subject. These range from the serious to the light in tone.
The special event of the Tolkien Society year is Oxonmoot, held over a weekend in September in an Oxford College. Oxonmoot began in 1974, the year after Tolkien's death, when it was felt that there should be an occasion for laying a wreath from the Society on the Professors' grave. There are a range of events such as talks, discussions, slide-shows and a party. It is a great time for learning more, having fun and making new friends.
Local Society groups, or 'smials', are encouraged, and serve as the settings for much of the social side of the Society, as is contact with overseas Tolkien-related groups.
In 1992, to celebrate J.R.R. Tolkien's centenary the Society joined forces with the American Mythopoeic Society to organise the 1992 Tolkien Centenary Conference at Keble College, Oxford. The Proceedings from the conference were jointly published by the two societies in 1996.
For most of '90s the Society has actively pursued its aim of establishing a Tolkien Memorial Centre, later just referred to as a Tolkien Centre. Various locations have been explored, including Thame and Bournemouth.
In 1997 the Society established a Trading Company (Tolkien Society Trading Ltd) to handle all of its sales and merchandising.
In 1996 the Society launched its award-winning Website (www.tolkiensociety.org). This contains pages on the Tolkien Centre, and Tolkien Country Park.
The Society has an active Education Team, which is currently writing teacher's packs, and information sheets for librarians and others wishing to run Tolkien celebrations.
The Tolkien Country Park Partners believe that the development of the Tolkien Country Park and Sarehole Mill site should include interpretation of several strands. These are interrelated, and the interpretation should similarly be interwoven. For example, an exhibition, viewing platform, or public art installation addressing one theme, should make reference to the other themes.
The themes identified are:
The principle interpretation of the Tolkien theme, the ecology of the park and 'Green' issues will be through the inclusion, at the Tolkien Country Park, of the Tolkien Centre. Local history, Sarehole Mill, and milling history will be mainly interpreted at Sarehole Mill. All five elements will be interpreted in the landscape. At a later date, a secondary interpretation centre may be needed in the south of the park. This could include workshop space for crafts people, which would generate revenue funding for the Tolkien Country Park, and support the economic sustainability of the area.
The Tolkien Centre will be an environmentally friendly building, designed to cause minimal visual impact. It is suggested that the building be
The Tolkien Centre will have the following elements:
All the exhibition areas will be as flexible as possible, incorporating modular walling and IT/electrical wiring.
The Tolkien Centre will be designed to minimise barriers: for example, wheelchair users will have access to all areas, all areas will have induction loops, and signage will be designed to make the centre intellectually accessible. The views of disabled people will be sought at all stages of the design process.
In addition to the interpretation themes, there will also be a need for
There may also be
The viewing veranda is seen as an extension of the Ecology of the Park exhibition.
The cafe will be separate from the exhibition space, and be capable of independent use (i.e., including toilets, it should have: exterior access, separate fire exit, and capable of being separately alarmed. The cafe should provide basic catering (hot and cold drinks, cakes, sandwiches, soup). The cafe should lead into the courtyard
The courtyard is to be a secure (gated) area, to include play equipment for small children, and to be a picnic area and extension of the cafe.
In the shop, Tolkien-related sales items could include books, souvenirs, and teaching materials. The Tolkien Society has a Limited Company trading subsidiary, which could be used to source and supply specialised Tolkien materials. The shop could sell the products of local artists and crafts people, and Birmingham memorabilia.
The meeting room/teaching space/performance space should be suitable for 60 adults (theatre style), should be adjacent to the cafe, and capable of independent use (as per the cafe description, but with access to a sink/water suitable for art and craft use, and be capable of independent use both on its own, and with the cafe.
The storage spaces and work areas includes 'dirty' spaces for tools and machinery and 'clean' spaces for exhibition preparation. Staff toilets need to be located nearby.
It is possible that a design competition could be held for the Tolkien Centre. The specification for the building would have to be tight.
The public will be encouraged to use public transport to access both the Park and the centre. Hall Green station is only mile from the proposed site and a bus route passes the entrance to the centre. All advertising would stress the available public transport access. The existing parking next to Sarehole mill would be retained and refurbished with marked out spaces including disabled parking. A zebra/pelican crossing might be necessary. A coach drop off point would be provided, consideration would need to be given to a suitable location for coaches to park after dropping off their passengers.
Users of the centre will be encouraged to see exploring the Country Park as part of the 'Tolkien experience'. As well as walking routes, bicycle hire and a 'Park mobility' disabled scooter hire facility are possibilities. As well as Hall Green Station, the stations at Shirley, Yardley Wood and Small Heath are also close to the park, arrangements for visitors to the park to purchase reduced price single tickets between these stations can be explored with the operators. This would allow visitors to walk one way and ride back.
Improved signage within the park, together with a disabled access viewing platform for the Mill pond would enhance the overall visitor experience.
Improvements to the Scribers Lane area (see Annex 5) will develop the ecology of the park, enhancing biodiversity.
The building itself will be designed to intrude as little as possible on its neighbours. The transport policy will minimise increased road traffic. Increased visitor numbers will result in increased wear and tear both in the Park and in the Mill. Suitable maintenance regimes will need to be in place to mitigate this. Careful signage and development of points of interest throughout the Park will help to spread the increased visitor load.
The appearance of the current car park and recycling areas at Sarehole Mill would be improved as a result of the project.
Other run-down areas of the park would be improved as a result of increased funding from the grant opportunities resulting from Country Park status.
The new planting at Scribers Lane would encourage biodiversity.
The Tolkien Country Park is for:
It is estimated that 50,000 visits per year can be attracted to the Tolkien Country Park (i.e. Tolkien Centre and/or Sarehole), and that for planning purposes, a capacity of 75,000 to 100,000 should be envisioned, with a maximum of 2,500 visitors on a peak day.
The Tolkien Country Park Partnership believes that entrance to the Park, Centre and Mill should be free, but that charges could be made for special exhibitions.
Ward Committees/Fora
Local Agenda 21 Groups
Members of Parliament
The Tolkien Country Park Partners has considered the following options for the ownership and management of the Tolkien Country Park:
| Ownership by: | Management by: |
|---|---|
| Birmingham City Council | Birmingham City Council |
| Birmingham City Council | Joint Management Committee |
| a specially created trust | the trust |
| a specially created company | the company |
The Tolkien Country Park Partners see strong arguments against the establishment of a company. A company is very open to the pressure of commercialisation.
The Tolkien Country Park Partners see arguments in favour of the other three options.
A Trust offers the chance for innovative and radical thinking which can be difficult to achieve within an established organisation. As an independent charitable body, the Park would be eligible for grant aid not available to a Local Authority. In addition, a trust can give a voice and participation to partners who would be unwilling, or unable to take an active part in the operation of the Park, and who would, therefore, not be able to participate in a joint Management Committee. Most notably, this could include the Tolkien Estate.
Birmingham City Council already owns most of the land of the park, and the stability and longevity of this body makes its continuing ownership more sustainable than the establishment of a trust.
Continuing ownership by Birmingham City Council, and management by a joint committee offers many of the advantages of the other solutions. It allows for active participation by partners, while the long-term future of the park is secure. Depending on the constitution of the joint Management Committee, it may be possible to achieve the charitable benefits of a trust. In addition, there are successful precedents for this method of partnership in the area, in the Millstream Project, and at Highfield Hall.
The Tolkien Country Park Partners therefore believes that the establishment of a joint management committee is the best way forwards, but that working with an existing organisation such as Birmingham City Council, or the establishment of a trust to both own and manage the site are also practical solutions.
See Annex 2 for a draft Tolkien Country Park Trust statement of purpose and structure.
The Tolkien Country Park Partnership believes that, whether the Park is managed by Birmingham City Council, by a joint Management Committee, or by a Trust, that the Park should be staffed by Birmingham City Council employees.
Funding will be as at present. Country Park Status will attract extra funding which will more than offset the costs of increasing the quality of provision of the park and the increased costs resulting from increased visitor numbers.
Establishment of partnership
Signage project
Shire Woodland project (Millennium Woodland)
Opening of Tolkien Centre
Redisplay of Sarehole Mill
Development of craft workshops/secondary interpretation centre
Continuing programme of evaluation and sustainable development of the park
The development of the Tolkien Country Park should be timed to capitalise on the current high level of interest in Professor Tolkien and his works. The 50th anniversary of the publication of The Lord of the Rings in 2004/2005 will ensure continuing publicity for Tolkien.
The Tolkien Country Park Partnership therefore recommends:
The purpose of the Tolkien Country Park Joint Management Committee is to
Each of the partners would appoint two Committee Members. Possible partners are:
In addition to the partnership Committee Members the local MP (at the moment Steve McCabe) could also be a Committee Member
This gives the additional advantage that the Committee Members become an odd number. Each partner organisation would decide how to appoint its own Committee Members and voting substitutes.
The Committee Members would elect a Chairman and Secretary from amongst their number and appoint a suitable Treasurer who may not be a Committee Member. The Treasurer might, for example, be an employee of Birmingham City Council.
There are certain people who might not be Committee Members, but who nevertheless may need to have a standing invitation to Committee meetings.
Other people may also be invited to be observers from time to time or when their advice is needed. The following list is not exhaustive:
The purpose of the Tolkien Country Park Trust is to
Each of the partners would appoint two Committee Members. Possible partners are:
In addition to the partnership Committee Members the local MP (at the moment Steve McCabe) could also be a Committee Member
This gives the additional advantage that the Committee Members become an odd number. Each partner organisation would decide how to appoint its own Committee Members and voting substitutes.
The Committee Members would elect a Chairman and Secretary from amongst their number and appoint a suitable Treasurer who may not be a Committee Member. The Treasurer might, for example, be an employee of Birmingham City Council.
There are certain people who might not be Committee Members, but who nevertheless may need to have a standing invitation to Trust meetings.
Other people may also be invited to be observers from time to time or when their advice is needed. The following list is not exhaustive:
The Joint Management Committee would have the power to appoint a Project Director, perhaps on secondment from Birmingham City Council.
There would be a Project Board of either three or five committee members (again an odd number) who would manage the Project Director. They would report back to the Joint Management Committee at meetings.
This would take the form of Project Assurance. A team of three would look at the project at predefined points in its life cycle to ensure that it is up to standard.
The team would comprise:
We suggest:
The Board of Trustees would have the power to appoint a Project Director, perhaps on secondment from Birmingham City Council.
There would be a Project Board of either three or five trustees (again an odd number) who would manage the Project Director. They would report back to the Board of Trustees at meetings.
This would take the form of Project Assurance. A team of three would look at the project at predefined points in its life cycle to ensure that it is up to standard.
The team would comprise:
We suggest:
This development can be linked to the Tolkien Centre, and other sites of Tolkien interest, by a Tolkien Trail.
Planting
Management
The site will be managed as part of the overall Tolkien Country Park management.
Funding
This could be a Millennium Woodland. In addition, individual sponsors will be sought, primarily using the membership of the Tolkien Country Park Partners, and visitors to the Tolkien Society website, together with local people contacted through the local media.
The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country was the first wildlife trust in the country to be specifically concerned with identifying and protecting the natural conservation interest that existed and indeed still exists in urban areas.
The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country is committed to the protection and maintenance and creation of local biodiversity and to sustainability in our life styles. It delivers this by way of educational techniques, campaigns etc. and by supporting local communities in protecting and maintaining their local areas. It also advises both the private and public sectors on natural environmental issues.
Moseley Bog Conservation Group was first known as Save Our Bog, and came into being in May 1980. In one month a 12,500 signature petition was presented to Birmingham city council planning committee to save land adjacent to Moseley Bog from development. In 1986, with an extended area of land added to the site, it was declared a Local Nature Reserve (LNR) by the City Council.
This campaign was the flagship of Urban Conservation and reports of it can be read in:
The site is mentioned in many guidebooks and specialist publications.
In 1984 the first Dawn Chorus Day event was held in Moseley Bog, this is now an international annual event held on the Sunday of the May Bank Holiday. This is often broadcast and televised.
In 1982 a c3000 year old Burnt Mound was discovered on the site; it is locally known as our Bronze Age Sauna. Reconstruction events, showing how the site was made and used, attract up to 200 visitors.
In 1998 an appeal was launched for a board walk to protect the Bronze Age sauna. The target has now been reached.
Publicity
The group has a very high profile both locally and nationally, on radio and television, and in newspapers and magazines. Educational and environmental events held in the Bog enjoy good support.
The River Cole and Chinn Book Conservation Group was founded in 1985 with the support of local Councillors and residents of the Hall Green constituency, for the local residents and other interested parties who support the aims of the group.
These aims are:
As part of the delivery of these aims the Group has campaigned long and hard for a visitors centre opposite Sarehole Mill. Members voted to take this further by instructing their Officers and Committee to add to the campaign the designation of the whole area as the Tolkien Country Park and that the visitors centre should also be dedicated to Tolkien: as the landscape and natural environment that the Group wishes to protect helped to form some of Tolkiens thoughts and ideas that he would later incorporate into his books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
The Tolkien Society has co-run, with the Mythopoeic Society of the USA, The 1992 Tolkien Centenary Conference, a medium sized academic and social conference to celebrate the centenary of Professor J.R.R. Tolkien CBE. The Conference was held in Keble College, Oxford, in August 1992; it attracted nearly 400 attendees, including well known figures in the area of Tolkien studies and academic circles. The proceeding of the conference was co-edited and co-published with the Mythopoeic Society, running in excess of 400 pages, it was acclaimed as a major work of Tolkien research.
To publicise itself The Tolkien Society mounted a large attendance at the most recent World Science Fiction Convention to be held in the UK.
In 1997 The Tolkien Society set up a wholly-owned trading company to handle all of its merchandising. This has proved most successful in its first year of operation a 1,200 operating profit was realised.
The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country was founded in 1980 from a group of local people who came together to support one another in their campaigns to protect threatened wildlife sites in their area, one being Moseley Bog in Birmingham.
It has now changed its name to The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country in order to identify itself with the area that it covers. The Trust is part of the national Wildlife Trust that covers the country and that is itself part of the Royal Society for Nature Conservation.
Moseley Bog LNR Conservation Group has two distinct elements:
The Management Committee comprises representatives of:
The River Cole and Chinn Book Conservation Group was founded in 1985 with the support of local Councillors and residents of the Hall Green constituency, for the local residents and other interested parties who support the aims of the group.
These aims are:
The Key Managers are mainly current trustees of the Tolkien Society. They hold the elected posts of Chairman, Membership Secretary, Committee Member and the appointed post of Archivist. In addition, there is an Advisor from outside of the Society who maintains close links with the Society.
The Key Managers were all involved with organisation of The 1992 Tolkien Centenary Conference and with the publicity at the World Science Fiction Convention.
They hold employed positions as Museums Development Officer with Surrey Museums Consultative Committee, as Registrar of English Heritage, Software Engineer at NEC Technologies (UK) Ltd., Mobile Radio Division, and Science Technician at an LEA Secondary School.
The Advisor is a retired Secondary School teacher in Special Needs and Youth Worker, who has had recent experience with the Heritage industry, including Roman re-enactment, research and education.
The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country was founded in 1980 from a group of local people who came together to support one another in their campaigns to protect threatened wildlife sites in their area, one being Moseley Bog in Birmingham. It works with local communities to support sustainable development.
The group is a partnership between local authorities and local people.
The River Cole and Chinn Book Conservation Group was founded in 1985 with the support of local Councillors and residents of the Hall Green constituency, for the local residents and other interested parties who support the aims of the group.
These aims include initiating a collaboration between local and statutory bodies, schools and voluntary groups.
All the Key Managers have had several years experience in working in the Voluntary sector, mainly in the various aspects in running the Tolkien Society. The Tolkien Society is an entirely voluntary society, with no paid staff.
The experience ranges from The 1992 Tolkien Centenary Conference through organising the annual Society convention in Oxford to the day-to-day running of the Society. The annual convention is one of the longest continuously running conventions of its type in the UK.
Contact details are not included here for security reasons.
If you wish to contact The Tolkien Park Partners regarding this proposal please do so via the contact form or the guestbook on this web site.
The Tolkien Society Constitution
Although a map of the immediate area around Sarehole mill was included in the printed proposal document it is regretably not practical to include it as part of the web site.
| Sarehole | Tolkien Park | Exploratory meeting | Tolkien Centre proposal | Proposal update | Update 1998 | Site tour | Location | Tolkien Weekend |
