Sarehole Mill

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Sarehole Mill

Sarehole Mill's blue plaque.

Sarehole Mill (grid reference SP099818) is a Grade II listed water mill (in an area once called Sarehole) on the River Cole in Hall Green, Birmingham, England. It is now run as a museum by the Birmingham City Council.

Built in 1542 on the site of a previous pool. It was once known as Bedell's or Biddle's Mill after the name of an early owner. The current building dates from 1771 and was restored 1969.

During the 18th Century the mill was leased by Matthew Boulton, one of the pioneers of the Industrial Revolution and leading figure of the Lunar Society, for scientific experimentation. As well as milling grain it has been used for grinding bones for fertiliser, metal rolling (Matthew Boulton) and wire drawing.

J. R. R. Tolkien lived within 300 metres of the mill between the ages four and eight, and would have seen it from his house. He has also said that he used the mill as a location in The Lord of the Rings.

It was a kind of lost paradise ... There was an old mill that really did grind corn with two millers, a great big pond with swans on it, a sandpit, a wonderful dell with flowers, a few old-fashioned village houses and, further away, a stream with another mill. I always knew it would go - and it did. - interview Tolkien with Guardian journalist, John Ezard 1966, before the mill's restoration.

The grassland and grounds nearby host the annual Tolkien Weekend event that celebrates the life of Tolkien and what he wrote.

As a Community Museum, that is branch museum, of the Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery it is owned and run by Birmingham City Council and is open to the public without charge, April - October.

[edit] Sources

Hall Green and Hereabout, John Morris JONES, ed. Michael Byrne 1989 , (Birmingham Libraries Catalogue)
Here and Then - The past of Our District, John Morris JONES, (Birmingham Libraries Catalogue)
A Guide to the Buildings of Birmingham, Peter Leather, ISBN 0-7524-2475-0