The Lord of the Rings,
'Longshanks' and the Anglo - Scottish Border

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Tolkien’s Connections to the Border and Newcastle

 

  Tolkien’s father had died when he was 2 and his mother died when he was 12,

but both he and his younger brother visited their father's sister, Grace Mountain

and her husband William C Mountain. They initially lived in 9 St George's

Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne,  moved to Hexham and finally

to 8 Sydenham Terrace, Newcastle.

 

Tolkien came to Newcastle on three occasions after his parents died. He stayed with his aunt and uncle who lived in 8 Sydenham Terrace. This house was later pulled down for the inner city motorway and the Civil Engineering Department of Newcastle University. 

 

His uncle, William Mountain, was a member of the   North  East Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers between 1892 - 1928, Vice-President of the Institute in 1925, an advisor on the use of electricity in mines, and MD of a very large electrical and general engineering company Messrs Scott and Mountain. Tolkien would have got an understanding of mines to prepare for his 'Mines of Moria', his knowledge coming not only from Birmingham's  'Black Country' but also from the heartland of the mining industry in England - the North-East of England.

Sydenham Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne

Tolkien taught at Merton College which had been the patron for 700 years of the Holy Trinity Church in the tiny Northumberland coastal village of Embleton. The College had even paid for the rebuilding of the Chancery in 1886-1887.

As an under-graduate at Oxford University where he studied English, one section of the course was on Sir Walter Scott whose novels were based in the Scottish Borders.  He liked John Buchan’s novels which were also based in Scotland.

He visited St Andrews in 1910 and 1911 when he was a student, and would also have learnt much Scottish history from his many Scottish friends throughout his life. His squash partner was Prof. Angus McIntosh who had helped establish the Linguistic Survey of Scotland, a School of Scottish Studies and the Linguistic Atlas of late Medieval English. He also visited Glasgow, Edinburgh and St Andrews where he gave lectures.

Aside

It is interesting to realize that there is a Northumberland connection to the school in Birmingham where he studied as a child. King Edward’s School was created by Royal Charter by Edward 6^th to be a free grammar school on land given by the Earl of Northumberland in 1552. 

http://www.destinationnewcastle.co.uk/Gallery/Old-Pictures-of-Newcastle-Page-10.asp