Northmoor Road

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

20 Northmoor Road, the former home of the author J.R.R. Tolkien.

Portrait of J.R.R. Tolkien, who lived at 22 and 20 Northmoor Road in the 1930s.

Northmoor Road is a road in North Oxford, England. It runs north-south parallel to and east of the Banbury Road. At the northern end is a junction with Belbroughton Road and to the south is a junction with Bardwell Road, location of the Dragon School. Linton Road crosses the road east-west about half way along.

St Andrew's Church is on the south-east corner of the junction with Linton Road. Just to the north is Northmoor Place, a row of newer terrace houses. Most of the houses in Northmoor Road are substantial detached residences.

[edit] Notable residents

Probably the most famous resident of Northmoor Road was the Oxford academic and author J. R. R. Tolkien. He lived at both No. 22 and then a larger house at No. 20 from 1930 to 1937. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and most of The Lord of the Rings while living at At 20 Northmoor Road. There is now a blue plaque on the house.

Another resident was Sir Martin Wood, who set up his company, Oxford Instruments, in his garden shed at his house in Northmoor Road. Oxford Instruments went on to become a leading company in medical technology. Later, in the 1980s, Wood founded the Northmoor Trust, aimed at promoting nature conservation at Little Wittenham and Wittenham Clumps in the Oxfordshire countryside south of Oxford.