The world famous author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, spent time in Staffordshire, in particular during the Great War when posted to the army training camps on Cannock Chase. The Great War years were a formative period in the development of Tolkien’s work on the mythology, languages, history and geography of what would become middle-earth. References in some of his writings relate to Staffordshire: Great Haywood, Shugborough Hall, Gypsy Green near Penkridge and Cannock Chase. Influences can be traced in his creative work, in particular his contemporary poetry and also The Book of Lost Tales, which was a forerunner to The Silmarillion.

Curated by The Haywood Society, this exhibition will celebrate the importance of Staffordshire on the early writings of J.R.R. Tolkien and the development of his vision of Middle-earth