The Guardian

London

The final instalment of JRR Tolkien’s ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ trilogy, ‘The Return Of The King’, opened in cinemas recently. New Zealand, where the films were shot, is again be taking all the glory, but when we think of Middle Earth, it will be Lancashire in north west England.

“We’re certainly not saying the area round Hurst Green was the only inspiration for ‘Lord Of The Rings’,” says Jonathan Hewat, “but definitely, it’s a key element.” Hewat is the marketing and admissions manager for Stonyhurst College, an imposing private school in the middle of the Ribble valley. In the 1940s, Tolkien regularly stayed at a guesthouse in the grounds when he was writing ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ and while his son John trained to be a priest there. If you read the novel, it’s not hard to see Lancashire links cropping up.

Several names that appear locally are similar to those that are found in the book, including Shire Lane and the river Shirebourn. Also, in the novel the description of the view from Tom Bombadil’s house towards the Misty Mountain is practically identical to that from New Lodge, where Tolkien stayed and which he painted.

One of his sketches shows a row of runner beans clearly visible — in the ‘Fellowship’, Frodo’s outlook is described as being “obscured by a tall line of beans on poles”. And looking at black-and-white photographs of the area, it wouldn’t take a leap of imagination to see the old ferry at Hacking, which still operated when Tolkien visited, as the inspiration for the Buckleberry ferry in the book.

There’s now a Tolkien walk around Hurst Green, past the college, along rough tracks, calm streams and through woodland, by Cromwell’s Bridge (the Lord Protector slept on a table at Stonyhurst en route to the battle of Preston in 1648). There are views to the local landmark, Pendle Hill, just a few feet too small to be a mountain, and on top of which in the 17th-century George Fox had a vision that led him to found the Quaker movement.

It’s also associated with the Pendle witches, who were taken from their homes at the foot of the hill, led through the Ribble valley and put on trial in Lancaster before being hanged in 1612. At the end of the six-mile walk is the welcoming site of the Shireburn Arms Hotel.