Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Travellers take over Hobbit beauty spot
Residents demand council must act
TRAVELLERS have pitched their caravans at the beauty spot which inspired JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings novel.
And angry residents are demanding councillors take action.
At least 30 caravans have set up camp on parkland at Sarehole Mill in Hall Green, Birmingham.
Tolkien lived near the mill as a child and later said it helped inspire the writing of his fantasy “Middle Earth” books, including The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
A 38-year-old resident, who did not want to be named, said: “It’s not only the fact they camp on this beautiful parkland, it’s the fact they leave such a mess when they go.”
She added: “Birmingham city council needs to do something about this. It is getting out of hand. They are now coming in vast numbers.” Another local, Alan Hart, said: “The last time they came, they left a hell of a mess. There is just too many of them – they’re making life a misery for us.”
And Matthew Hudson added: “It’s getting too much. The council needs to step in and do something about this – they’ll leave a hell of a mess when they go.”
The park features a Grade Ii-listed water mill on the River Cole and Tolkien lived within 300 yards of it between the ages of four and eight, at the start of the 20th century.
Speaking about Sarehole Mill in 1966, Tolkien said: “It was a kind of lost paradise. There was an old mill that really did ground corn with two millers, a great big pond with swans on it, a sandpit, a wonderful dell with flowers, a few old-fashioned village houses and, further away, a stream with another mill.”
The park now hosts the annual Tolkien Weekend event that celebrates the writer’s life and works.
Birmingham city council was unavailable for comment yesterday.
A 19-month-old boy hit by a van close to the site on Friday, died from a head injury in hospital on Saturday. A man aged 30 and a woman, 26, were arrested and later bailed. It is not known if they were linked to the traveller community.