Tolkien's Guide to Birmingham Part II: Moseley Bog

« Part I
Further to my introduction - nowhere could sound more uninviting than Moseley Bog! Nearby Sarehole Mill (apparently the inspiration for Tolkien's Old Mill at Hobbiton) we have an area of conservation, almost a world within a world 3 miles south of Birmingham's City Centre. It was barely possible to find this place on the map, it looked so small - but once we were there, donned in our walking boots, we were greeted by a thick wood of winding paths and wetlands. This place was once Tolkien's playground, becoming in his imagination the Old Forest of Middle Earth fame. In fact, we were convinced we could find the Entwives if we looked hard enough...

A casualty of the war of the ring, perhaps: this unfortunate Ent is now a scar on the horizon of Moseley Bog. But it makes an attractive scar. There are certainly a lot of old trees around, and there is even occasions where fallen wood has been skillfully carved into characters! Below I am admiring a Croc which had been carved on a tree which had fallen across the path.

The area did have some information signs, but it was a little difficult to read under all the graffiti! Some were, in fact, ripped up completely. But I've heard it has been a worse sight, with cars being joyridden and burnt out amounst the clearings. That is Birmingham youth nowadays; Tolkien would have been disappointed that they aren't so easily pleased by nature's playground! Anyway, one of the signs said that Spring was a wonderful time to visit, with a visual feast of bluebells. But this time of year, in Autumn, we have a visual feast of strange fungi!

Any ideas of Tolkien-esque comparisons with this?? Maybe Lothlorien??

At last we emerged from the Bog, and past the clearing we could see Joy's Wood. We caught sight of huge trees emerging from the canopy, Entish in appearence. Whether these were the Entwives or not, I'll let you decide...

But the Moseley bog story doesn't end there. It is a lovely afternoon trip for inner-city Brums, even if it's just the locals walking the dogs, but there is soon to be a £500,000 lottery cash injection to revamp the place, with new car parks (we were parked in residential Pensby Close), paths, and public art (more Crocs perhaps? Strewth mate!). Soon people will be flocking far and wide to experience the mystery of middle earth in Birmingham's own Moseley Bog. Or maybe not...

Part III »