Literary Walk

Outside the Library pub

Carol Downing (Leeds Combined Arts)writes:

Despite the bitterly cold weather and snow nineteen people attended the talk and walk on Sunday 18 March.

The first part of the walk is from behind the Leeds University Engineering block where Claire has identified the location of Tolkien's house from St Mark's Terrace where he and his wife Edith and their first two children lived from the autumn of 1921 to mid 1924 when they moved to Darnley Road, West Park after he had been made Professor of English in that year.

The second section was videoed in a room in the Library Pub, (formerly Woodhouse Library) which is only a short distance from the first location. In the second part Claire talked about Tolkien's early life and mentioned some of the nearby locations in Woodhouse and Headingley which he will have known and which Claire believes were source influences on some of his landscapes in Middle Earth. Some people then went off on the walk with one of Leeds Combined Arts members whilst Claire did a further extended talk in the pub giving further information on Tolkien and an informal Q&A session with others who remained behind. We all met later at the Skyrack pub in Headingley which was Tolkien's local when he first arrived in Leeds, and has just opened its Tolkien room overlooking the site of the old Shire Oak which was the founding point of Headingley in Anglo-Saxon times. Claire explained how she believed the Shire Oak may have influenced Tolkien's mythic imagination in the second part.

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We would like to thank both the Library Pub in Woodhouse and the Skyrack pub in Headingley for allowing us to use their rooms for the talk on such a cold day.

LitFest is grateful for the support volunteered by bootless Leeds University student Becky Doyle, even though we advised her not to risk the ice and snow in trainers!

Walkers' Comments

Always fascinating informative and inspiring.

Researched J R Tolkien for many years. Very interesting and educational to get the local connections.

Very enjoyable and thought provoking. An insight into the huge puzzle as to how Tolkien produced such amazing work.

Really enjoyable afternoon, so glad this was able to go ahead.

Very much enjoyed this talk.

I found this talk very interesting.

Excellent presentation by Claire.

Fascinating.

Really good, thank you so much Claire and Headingley LitFest.