Aspies For Freedom

Anyone interested in local history?
Today I went on a bike ride to explore the connection J. R. R. Tolkien has to the place I live.
In 1914 Tolkien stayed at his Aunt’s farm, called Phoenix Farm, in Gedling Nottinghamshire (½ a mile away from my house). While the farm has now been demolished, it is said that it was there that Tolkien wrote the poem The Voyage Of Earendel The Evening Star  that in the end led to the Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

Éarendel sprang up from the Ocean's cup
In the gloom of the mid-world's rim;
From the door of Night as a ray of light
Leapt over the twilight brim,
And launching his bark like a silver spark
From the golden-fading sand
Down the sunlit breath of Day's fiery Death
He sped from Westerland

This was Tolkien’s first poem and is extremely significant; as it is thought it led to the rest of his writing. It also is believed that Jane Neave (Tolkien’s Aunt) was the model for the wizard Gandalf in Lord Of The Rings; she was apparently a very extraordinary person.

<--Gedling Church, Phoenix Farm would have been off to right on the picture.

Does anyone else have an interest in local history? Is there anything interesting about the place where you live?

A woman was the inspiration for Gandalf?  How fab

I'm interested in Tolkien but not local history.  I find the area where I live to be dull as dishwater.

I'm a big time Tolkien fan; and was surprised to find out there was a connection to where I live (here's a Tolkien forum). My father was very interested in local history; he use to collect old maps of the local area; and plans of the man made caves in Nottingham.
<--Nottingham caves.
The Lord of the Rings - Riders of Rohan
A Hobbit's Tale - Bilbo Baggins