3 Manor Road
3 Manor Road in Oxford was the home of Ronald, Edith, and Priscilla Tolkien from 1947[1] to 1950. They moved to this "tiny terraced house",[2] owned by Merton College, when their previous home, the house at 20 Northmoor Road became too big and costly to maintain after the boys had moved out.
But quite soon they found their new home too small: there was no room that Tolkien could use as a study. Tolkien stated that he typed out The Hobbit (once) and The Lord of the Rings (twice) while sitting on a bed in the attic.[3] Merton College promised to offer Tolkien a larger house as soon as one became available. In 1950 the Tolkiens moved to 99 Holywell Street.[4]
Theologian Austin Farrer and his wife Katherine lived in number 7 of the same street,[5] and after the Tolkiens moved, Ronald kept correspondence with them, especially with Katherine.
References
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 107, (dated 7 December 1946), p. 119
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 241, (dated 8-9 September 1962), p. 321-322
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 257, (dated 16 July 1964), p. 344
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 126, (dated 10 March 1950), p. 140
- ↑ Philip Curtis, A Hawk among Sparrows: A Biography of Austin Farrer, p. 119
- Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond, The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide Part I, p. 311, 314; Part II, p. 696
