Tolkien Weekend 2005

Fun at Park

The sixth Tolkien Weekend took place at Sarehole Mill on 14 to 15 May 2005.

The Tolkien Society table in the courtyard.

The Tolkien Weekend has become more popular year on year. This year there were more stalls on the main field, there was more to do and more to see. In previous years, there had tended to be an empty area towards the end of the field, with the amateur radio demonstration left somewhat in lonely splendour.

This time there were more attractions using all the available space, with a farmers market also at the far end of the field. Both the sausages and the cheese were excellent!

A number of visitors commented favourably on the proposal for a Tolkien Centre.

The event is now so large and varied that it is not possible to experience everything in two days. Attractions included:

The mill itself
The Tolkien Society archives exhibition
Guided tours
The Tolkien Tent
- Caligraphy
- Games Workshop
- Isengard Smial
- Sindarin lessons
- Proposals for a Tolkien Centre
- Book sales and many other stands

Farmers Market
Wythall Amateur Radio Club
A model railway that people could ride on
A gypsy caravan
Woodland craft demonstrations
Re-enactment societies
RSPB
Two craft tents
A poetry tent
A local Ranger service exhibit
Archery
Activities for small children.
Hot sausage rolls, veggy burgers and ice cream vans.

Guided Tours

There were many guided tours and walks:

In the footsteps of Tolkien: A walk along the River Cole to the Dingles with Peter Bennett.
Wildlife walk: Along the River Cole with Stefan Bodnar
Mosely Bog: A walk led by John Craig Wood, Local Nature Reserves Officer.
Mosely School: A walk led by Rod Ling. Hilary Tolkien trained here as a cadet for the "Pals".
Tolkien's childhood haunts: A walk led by Bob Blackham
Mosely Bog: An archeology walk with City Archaologist Mike Hodder

The Tolkien Tent

Sindarin

Sindarin lessons were popular.

Zainab Thorp was gving lessons in Sindarin, as in previous years. Lesson titles included:

Greetings
How are you?
Where is it?
How to date an elf.

Unfortunately there were no elves present at the end of the day for people to practice on ...

The lessons proved very popular, though. Any elves reading this can rest assured of being addressed politely by Zainab's students.

Games Workshop layout showing a Hobbit hole.

Games workshop had two tables, popular with younger visitors.

Videos showing places thought to have influenced Tolkien.

The Isengard Smial table, with the banner above

Isengard Smial, the Birmingham local group of The Tolkien Society.

Audio tours of Tolkien's influences and inspirations

Audio tours of places thought to have influenced Tolkien.

Books were also on offer.

Other areas, a miscellaneous sample

Live herbs and locally produced wine were on sale in one of the craft tents.

Model steam train, with people riding on it.

The society of model engineers were conducting rides on their mini steam train.

A piece of tree trunk, partly carved into something-or-another

People had a chance to try their hand at wood carving.

Archery

As in previous years, an introduction to archery was on offer. This was extremely popular, with queues of almost an hour throughout the weekend and the instructors and arrow-gatherers working flat out. Our roving reporters made it to the front of the queue for the first time ever and were so impressed they are thinking of taking it up. (No pictures, though. Too busy shooting!)

People were shooting at conventional targets or at a model of Smaug. One of the targets was partly obscured by a model spider, not as large as Shelob, but large enough to add to the challenge.