Sarehole Mill Museum

Title: Sarehole Mill Museum

Built in: 1771

Location: Cole Bank Road, Birmingham B13 0BD

Short intro: 250-year-old water mill famously associated with author J. R. R. Tolkien

Description: There has been a mill on this site since 1542, but the building that can currently be visited is of a younger construction. Sarehole Mill has a connection with two famous Birmingham figures: the industrialist Matthew Boulton leased the mill between 1756 and 1761. It is thought it was Boulton who converted the mill’s machinery for use in metalworking. Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, lived across the road from the mill in the early twentieth century. Tolkien stated that the mill’s rural surroundings would inspire elements of his fictional ‘Middle-Earth’. Today, Sarehole Mill is part of the ‘Birmingham Museums’ family, and renovations have returned the mill to its original glory.