Possibly the station’s greatest claim to fame is a world famous literary connection, as it is at Gedling Station that J.R.R Tolkien is thought to have alighted his train from Nottingham when visiting his aunt (Jane Neave) who lived at nearby Phoenix Farm.
On one such occasion, in September of 1914, he stayed at Phoenix Farm where he wrote the poem The Voyage of Éarendel the Evening Star his first ‘middle-earth’ fragment. And the rest as they say ‘is history’.
When a young boy Tolkien’s family moved to King’s Heath, where their house backed onto a railway line – young Ronald’s developing linguistic imagination was engaged by the sight of coal trucks going to and from South Wales bearing destinations like” Nantyglo”,” Penrhiwceiber” and “Senghenydd”. Food for thought!
On Saturday 2nd April 2022 a Tolkien blue plaque was unveiled at the station to commemorate his visit to Gedling.
Many thanks to Mark Hughes, Paul Farrell and Mike Adams for their generous financial donations which made this possible.
The images below show the unveiling of the plaque by Mark, Paul and Mike.
