Groups who didn’t catch the Tolkien exhibition at the Museum of Cannock Chase earlier this year can now see it at various locations in Staffordshire as it goes on a tour of the county.
The exhibition, entitled J.R.R. Tolkien & Staffordshire 1915-1918: A Literary Landscape, focuses on the time the Lord of the Rings author spent in Staffordshire during World War One.
Staffordshire is home to a number of places that were important during the author’s life, and the county tour of the exhibition will stop at many of these, including the town where he lived with his wife.
Groups can see copies of original artwork, including domestic scenes and landscapes drawn in Staffordshire by Tolkien in 1918. There are also a number of photographs specially loaned by the Tolkien Estate and Bodleian Library.
Tolkien: a soldier and a husband
While focusing on Tolkien’s writing, poetry, and artwork, the exhibition also allows visitors to learn more about a soldier’s life in Staffordshire during the war.
Second Lieutenant J.R.R. Tolkien, of the Lancashire Fusiliers, was stationed at a number of Staffordshire barracks and camps during the war, including Whittington Heath, near Lichfield; a musketry camp at Newcastle-under-Lyme; and Rugeley and Brocton camps on Cannock Chase.
Following his marriage in March 1916, Tolkien’s wife came to live in Great Haywood so that she could be close to him. Tolkien regularly visited Edith in the village until he was posted to France in June 1916.
He then returned to Great Haywood in early December 1916 to recover from his traumatic experiences at the Somme.
County tour dates:
Great Haywood Memorial Hall: 5th - 10th July
Codsall Library, 12th July – 22nd August
Penkridge Library: 24th August – 22nd October
Shire Hall Gallery: 25th October to 16th November
Lichfield Library: 19th November – 8th January
Stafford Library: 10th January – 10th February 2017
The exhibition is free to enter.
For further information visit www.staffordshiregreatwar.com.
(Photo credit: David Robbie).
