The purpose of this site is to:
- Justify and encourage the creation of an official footpath in the West Midlands dedicated to one of the region’s most famous sons, the author J.R.R. Tolkien.
- Set out a recommended route for this footpath, which I have named The Shire Way.
- Help publicise the connection between Tolkien and the West Midlands.
- Explore the route’s educational possibilities and how it might be used to teach literature, history, geography, botany, art and other subjects.
- Record any progress made towards realising these aims.
Although some of the supporting research is my own, my essays draw extensively on work by Humphrey Carpenter, Robert Blackham, John Garth, Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull. I should especially like to thank the family of the late Maggie Burns for providing me with her unpublished account of Tolkien’s life in the West Midlands. I could not have brought this project to fruition without her Roots and Reality.
Dr Ben Felderhof
