Kind of apt as I live in the same area that Tolkien took his walks. He lived for a short while in the village I grew up in too.
The Staffordshire cottage
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The first connection between Tolkien and Staffordshire dates all the way back to the First World War.
Tolkien enlisted in the army and in 1916, was stationed at Cannock Chase in south Staffordshire.
His wife, Edith, whom he married in March of that year took a cottage at the village of Great Haywood, near Stafford, just to be close to him.
He lived in Cottage 1, Gipsy Green, on the Teddesley Park Estate, near Penkridge.
As an accomplished artist he did a series of his famous illustrations which include drawings of the redbrick semi-detached house, which had a number of chimneys.
Somme
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But, in June, he was sent to France, where he saw action on the Western Front, just in time for the Somme offensive.
Though he survived that terrible battle, after four months in and out of the trenches, he succumbed to "trench fever" - a form of typhus-like infection - and in early November 1916, was sent back to England.
He spent that winter convalescing with Edith in the cottage at Great Haywood.
The works begin
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The Staffordshire surroundings can thus lay claim to inspiring Tolkien's early fantasy writings.
During his leave in Great Haywood, in January and February 1917, Tolkien started to write the 'Book of Lost Tales'.
This book was the basis of a much more famous publication and indeed the book which describes the early history of Tolkien's mythical Middle-Earth - the Silmarillion.
