The Middle-earth Weekend 2013
Sam Gamgee in the book ’The Lord of the Rings’ by J.R.R. Tolkien is a gardener at the start of the story. In the film, Faramir says that "Gardeners must be held in high esteem in The Shire". Well of course they are.
Tolkien was keen on gardening, spending the time between teaching and writing in tending his flowers and vegetables. His interest in the natural world started as child in Sarehole wandering along the River Cole and surroundings with his brother Hilary and learning from his mother the names of plants and trees.
To acknowledge Tolkien’s links with Sarehole, The Tolkien Society, the River Cole and Chinn Brook Conservation Group and Moseley Bog Conservation Group met together in December 2000 to discuss the possibility of creating a country park to honour J.R.R. Tolkien and his connections with Birmingham, not least his living in Wake Green Road, opposite to Sarehole Mill, an inspiration to much of his work. This idea came to fruition and The Shire Country Park, now exists and covers the area along the River Cole from the Solihull Border, for several miles in towards the centre of Birmingham and includes the atmospheric Moseley Bog where Tolkien and his brother Hilary played as child, Sarehole Mill is at its heart. www.shirecountryparkfriends.org.uk.
It was during early discussions, that the idea of a weekend event to celebrate Tolkien's life and work was suggested. The first one in 2000 was small scale, (one tent, facepainting, craft activities. It was, however, very successful and involved several local groups volunteering entertainment, information and creative activities to an eager public.
Since then the weekend has grown considerably in size, and the number of attractions and visitors, local and national, has increased along with it. The success of the films The Lord of the Rings added to the numbers attending, but even after the three films were over, the public still came along. Now, of course we have seen the release of the first of Peter Jackson’s films based on ‘The Hobbit with two more to follow.
The original volunteer groups have maintained their support but the event has grown from a few hundred visitors to several thousand at any one time, and includes far more activities for visitors to enjoy including guided walks around the area, re-enactment groups, medieval craftsmen and the chance to become the next Legolas with the archers. If you have read 'The Hobbit' you will understand the significance of the mini barrel race along the River Cole, taking place each afternoon at 3.00pm. Drama, music and poetry are regular features as is the ever popular Tolkien Tent and Craft Tent.
Visitors are encouraged to attend the weekend in costume and perhaps enter the costume competition. There is a prize each day for adults and one for children. This free event is suitable for children and families as well as fans of Tolkien's stories, in fact anyone who enjoys a festival with an 'old-fashioned' feel about it. Booking is necessary in the Information Tent for some of the activities taking place and there may be a charge for some activities within the event, e.g. face painting but most of the activities are free.
After its renovation, Sarehole Mill is in full working order and behind the mill, Sam’s flower garden and The Gaffer’s Vegetable Patch are flourishing,together with the ivy border, and newly landscaped garden between the offices and the mill. This year the volunteer gardeners will be adding to the gardens, enlarging the fernery, and sowing a wildflower border. A miniature village of Hobbiton is being created especially for the weekend. The gardens are a lovely and surprising oasis within this area. The mill will be free to enter and visitors can enjoy the exhibition and audio visual display about Tolkien together with a mini-hobbit hunt within the mill building. The Tolkien Society will also be there as well as local history groups. Perhaps you would like to come along and share the fun or just visit the mill to enjoy the gardens and relax in the cafe or outside in the courtyard should summer decide to bestow its warmth on you.
middleearthweekend.org.uk
Wednesday 24 April 2013
Monday 8 April 2013
The Sarehole Yew
Sarehole Mill has now officially opened for the season after the many renovations that have taken place since October last year.
It was hard work getting the patch of garden between the old stable block and the mill (around the Yew Tree) ready for the opening. Extreme gardeners were we, not to mention expert pratitioners of synchronised digging. This was quickly followed by extraction of plants frozen in their pots. Alas, all this effor was follow by yet another downfall of snow overnight. Happily the tree canopy had protected the area somewhat and the majority of the space revealed all. It looked very fine I thought. Kevin and Wayne from the Mill had, with a huge effort and great difficulty managed to get an old and extremely heavy millstone to the area and we planted around it and around the newly created circular tree seat and stepping stones. The scene looks very welcoming now for visitors as they enter the grounds of the mill from the car park. Currently, after all that snow,the ground is currently remarkably dry.
Some of us were discussing the Yew Tree and its possible age. Readers might, perhaps, be a little interested in the following details I have gleaned from various sources.
"The yew is an unsmooth tree on the outside
Held firm in the earth, roots twisting beneath
Guardian of fire and a joy on the land"
The above quote is taken from an Anglo Saxon Rune poem; one which I am sure Tolkien would have known well. Those of us digging the ground can testify to the roots ‘twisting beneath’.
Yew is one of the trees used to symbolise the mystical Irminsul, the world tree that our ancestors saw as a metaphor for the cosmos. It might appear on its surface to be just a rough tree. But in its upper branches lies the kingdom of Heaven; the realm of God, the Ælfe or Angels. Situated at the top of the tree, this is the highest spiritual level - the place we all like to get to as we make our spiritual journey. In the lower branches of the tree lies the kingdom of Middengeard or middle earth, our own mortal realm where we live now. The three roots of this great tree pass through the earth, down through the primal world of Hel, the place our ancestors saw as the realm of darkness and shadows.
Yew is far slower growing than other forest trees, because it is laying down hard, close-grained wood. This gives great strength to the trunk and branches providing durable wood for carving and turning as well as making bows for archers.
“With age the yew becomes less straight, 'an unsmooth tree . . . roots twisted in the earth' as the Rune Poem says, but it does not lose its strength. Trees know nothing of old age or death: they grow on and on until accident finishes them off. It is growth itself which makes them vulnerable."
Each year a fresh ring is added to the trunk and branches. Each successive ring is larger than the last, while the crown of leaves stays the same, having reached a point beyond which the framework of the tree can support no more. At last most trees will snap under their own weight, or keel over in storms. The yew has other ideas. It can turn disease into an advantage by allowing fungal infections to eat up its heartwood, leaving a hollow tree which, because the twisted wood is so strong, continues to support the heavy crown of leaves. Meanwhile branches loop down under their own weight until they touch the ground, and there they set root. A young branch may even touch down into the leaf mould inside the hollow trunk, and then the tree renews itself from within; or the spread of disease may split the trunk into staves, each bowing out to root itself individually, so that a single tree is transformed into a grove. The last trick of the yew defeats time itself. The tree simply stops growing. There is no increase in girth, no annual ring. Having reached a sufficient size, it remains stable; it may resume growth, or perhaps not.
It is not easy then to discover the age of a yew tree without examining the rings and many authorities until recently gave up speculating. However, a very rough and ready guide I found would be to estimate 1 foot around the girth of the tree to equal 25-30 years. The girth of this particular yew is nearly 5 feet, indicating an age of approximately 140 years old. So we might conjecture that a seedling ‘took’ around 1870.
Yew is found often in churchyards but pre-dates Christianity. In pagan times it was considered sacred. There appears to be no evidence of any particularly sacred remains at Sarehole. Plus, yew is very toxic to animals, particularly horses so I would think that a sapling might well be pulled up. Deliveries of grain would have been by horse and cart and at one point there were pigsties.
Perhaps it was during the periods of metal rolling taking place at the mill that this seed became firmly established, being less of a threat. Perhaps that particular patch of ground lay unused long enough for the tree to establish itself permanently, its seed having been carelessly dropped from a passing bird, allowing the seed to grow steadily and possibly for some years unnoticed; evergreen through all the seasons to stand now looming proudly over the new seat around its waist. Now we may sit and admire the Sarehole Yew at our leisure.
It was hard work getting the patch of garden between the old stable block and the mill (around the Yew Tree) ready for the opening. Extreme gardeners were we, not to mention expert pratitioners of synchronised digging. This was quickly followed by extraction of plants frozen in their pots. Alas, all this effor was follow by yet another downfall of snow overnight. Happily the tree canopy had protected the area somewhat and the majority of the space revealed all. It looked very fine I thought. Kevin and Wayne from the Mill had, with a huge effort and great difficulty managed to get an old and extremely heavy millstone to the area and we planted around it and around the newly created circular tree seat and stepping stones. The scene looks very welcoming now for visitors as they enter the grounds of the mill from the car park. Currently, after all that snow,the ground is currently remarkably dry.
Some of us were discussing the Yew Tree and its possible age. Readers might, perhaps, be a little interested in the following details I have gleaned from various sources.
"The yew is an unsmooth tree on the outside
Held firm in the earth, roots twisting beneath
Guardian of fire and a joy on the land"
The above quote is taken from an Anglo Saxon Rune poem; one which I am sure Tolkien would have known well. Those of us digging the ground can testify to the roots ‘twisting beneath’.
Yew is one of the trees used to symbolise the mystical Irminsul, the world tree that our ancestors saw as a metaphor for the cosmos. It might appear on its surface to be just a rough tree. But in its upper branches lies the kingdom of Heaven; the realm of God, the Ælfe or Angels. Situated at the top of the tree, this is the highest spiritual level - the place we all like to get to as we make our spiritual journey. In the lower branches of the tree lies the kingdom of Middengeard or middle earth, our own mortal realm where we live now. The three roots of this great tree pass through the earth, down through the primal world of Hel, the place our ancestors saw as the realm of darkness and shadows.
Yew is far slower growing than other forest trees, because it is laying down hard, close-grained wood. This gives great strength to the trunk and branches providing durable wood for carving and turning as well as making bows for archers.
“With age the yew becomes less straight, 'an unsmooth tree . . . roots twisted in the earth' as the Rune Poem says, but it does not lose its strength. Trees know nothing of old age or death: they grow on and on until accident finishes them off. It is growth itself which makes them vulnerable."
Each year a fresh ring is added to the trunk and branches. Each successive ring is larger than the last, while the crown of leaves stays the same, having reached a point beyond which the framework of the tree can support no more. At last most trees will snap under their own weight, or keel over in storms. The yew has other ideas. It can turn disease into an advantage by allowing fungal infections to eat up its heartwood, leaving a hollow tree which, because the twisted wood is so strong, continues to support the heavy crown of leaves. Meanwhile branches loop down under their own weight until they touch the ground, and there they set root. A young branch may even touch down into the leaf mould inside the hollow trunk, and then the tree renews itself from within; or the spread of disease may split the trunk into staves, each bowing out to root itself individually, so that a single tree is transformed into a grove. The last trick of the yew defeats time itself. The tree simply stops growing. There is no increase in girth, no annual ring. Having reached a sufficient size, it remains stable; it may resume growth, or perhaps not.
It is not easy then to discover the age of a yew tree without examining the rings and many authorities until recently gave up speculating. However, a very rough and ready guide I found would be to estimate 1 foot around the girth of the tree to equal 25-30 years. The girth of this particular yew is nearly 5 feet, indicating an age of approximately 140 years old. So we might conjecture that a seedling ‘took’ around 1870.
Yew is found often in churchyards but pre-dates Christianity. In pagan times it was considered sacred. There appears to be no evidence of any particularly sacred remains at Sarehole. Plus, yew is very toxic to animals, particularly horses so I would think that a sapling might well be pulled up. Deliveries of grain would have been by horse and cart and at one point there were pigsties.
Perhaps it was during the periods of metal rolling taking place at the mill that this seed became firmly established, being less of a threat. Perhaps that particular patch of ground lay unused long enough for the tree to establish itself permanently, its seed having been carelessly dropped from a passing bird, allowing the seed to grow steadily and possibly for some years unnoticed; evergreen through all the seasons to stand now looming proudly over the new seat around its waist. Now we may sit and admire the Sarehole Yew at our leisure.
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