Kinver's rock houses inspired Tolkien's Lord of the Rings says BBC

That was the question asked in a new show where historians posed whether the popular National Trust site may have been behind the Hobbit holes that featured in both The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

In a recent episode of Hidden Treasures of the National Trust on BBC Two and iPlayer, the history and conservation efforts of Kinver Edge and its rock houses were showcased.

The episode also gave an insight into the intriguing connection between Kinver and Lord of the Rings.

"When you look at Kinver Edge it's easy to believe that Tolkien himself was inspired by the rock houses when dreaming up Hobbit holes, the home of Bilbo Baggins and his characters in the Lord of the Rings series," said historian Helen Antrobus on the BBC show.

Kinver Edge shares an uncanny resemblance with the Hobbit homes of the Shire, with their green doors, hillside setting and idyllic rural location (Image: National Trust)

"We know he travelled to the area, we know it was familiar to him," she added.

Tolkien lived in Birmingham and its suburbs for the majority of his childhood between 1895 and 1911, and given his clear admiration for the countryside, it is entirely possible he frequented Kinver and their unique rock houses.

From 1901, a short train trip from Snow Hill Station to Amblecote in Stourbridge, followed by a ride along the newly built Kinver Light Railway, could put a day visitor in the unspoilt countryside within two hours, making it completely plausible Tolkien visited the area.

The National Trust's record concurs with this, noting the site became a tourist attraction at the turn of the 20th century.

While Tolkien never revealed the names of the places that inspired his stories, he did admit that many of them were based on his experiences in the English Midlands where he lived as a youth, and Kinver's beautiful countryside and unique cave-like dwellings appear akin to the author's imagination on paper.

However, it is widely believed that Hobbiton, the area in which Bilbo and Frodo Baggins call home is based upon Sarehole, the village in which Tolkien spent his formative years.

In a 1966 interview, Tolkien said: "I was brought up in considerable poverty but I was happy running about in that country. I took the idea of the hobbits from the village people and children."

Tolkien's imagination of Lord of the Rings, the Shire and Middle-earth lives on to this day, with the series next instalment, Lord of the Rings: A Hunt for Gollum set to be released in 2027, where a depiction of the Shire will once again return to our screens.