J R R Tolkien 1892-1973 lived in Rednal for a while during his mother’s final illness.

In the summer of 1904 when Tolkien was 12 years old and living in a run-down inner-city area on the borders of north Edgbaston and Ladywood, Father Francis Xavier Morgan of the Birmingham Oratory arranged for the family to stay in the rural isolation of Rednal.

Fern Cottage, built in the mid-18th-century stood in the grounds of the Oratory Retreat, at the rear of the . It was the local postman’s house and the Tolkien’s rented two rooms here with meals provided by the postman’s wife.

Tolkien spent that summer holiday wandering with his younger brother around the Lickey Hills.

His mother died that November of diabetes.

The property has been let as a holiday cottage in the past but is at the moment let to private tenants.

Please respect the privacy of the current occupants.