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Sarehole Mill, Birmingham

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Sarehole Mill is a watermill on the River Cole, in Hall Green Birmingham, an area once known as Sarehole. The author J.R.R. Tolkien lived close to the mill during his childhood in the late 1890s. The mill, and the Sarehole area generally, would inspire the imaginary Shire in the books he would later write. Sarehole Mill represented for Tolkien a more innocent age before the coming of industrialisation. He called it a "lost paradise" in an interview with the Guardian in 1966. Ironically, however, from 1755 the mill was leased to Matthew Boulton, a pioneering figure in the Industrial Revolution, and a member of the Lunar Society of leading scientists and industrialists.

The mill today houses a museum which demonstrates how mills like this once worked.

There is a cafe in the old miller's house.

 

 

 

Directions: Sarehole Mill is on the B4146 in Hall Green, Birmingham. Hall Green train station is close by. Click here for an interactive map entred on Sarehole Mill.

Address: Sarehole Mill, Cole Bank Road, Hall Green, Birmingham B13 0BD.

Opening Times: 1st April - 30th October, Tuesday to Sunday, 12 midday - 4pm (2011). Open bank holiday Mondays. Open for school visits outside these months, please use contact details below.

Access: Most areas have level acess, but upper floors can only be reached by steep steps.

Contact:

telephone: 0121 777 6612

web site: http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/sarehole

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