Tim Tolkien

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Tim Tolkien
Sentinel sculpture TimTolkien.jpg
Sentinel near the Jaguar works in Castle Bromwich, formerly the Castle Bromwich Assembly Spitfire factory
BornOctober 1962 (age 60)
NationalityEnglish
Known forSculpture
Notable work Sentinel

Tim Tolkien (born October 1962) is an English sculptor who has designed several monumental sculptures, including the award-winning Sentinel .

Contents

He has a metal sculpture and public Art business at Cradley Heath, West Midlands. He is also a bass player and member of the band Klangstorm, founded in 1996.

Early life

Tim is the great-nephew of the writer J. R. R. Tolkien. He was raised in the village of Hughenden Valley and went to the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe. He graduated with a degree in fine art (sculpture) from the University of Reading in 1984.

Works

Sentinel

Sentinel is Tolkien's most famous work to date. In 1996, he was appointed by CAN [1] who were awarded the contract to develop public art proposals for the estate using National Lottery money, as an artist in residence to help with regeneration of the Castle Vale estate in Birmingham. The following year, he consulted with residents about an art project for the entrance to the estate. They favoured a sculpture featuring Spitfires, reflecting the area's flying history and particularly the Castle Bromwich Assembly which stood nearby. The large steel and aluminium Sentinel Spitfire sculpture was the result, showing three Spitfires peeling off up into the air in different directions. It was unveiled on 14 November 2000, near the former factory which built them, by their former test pilot Alex Henshaw.

Cedric Hardwicke

Tolkien also sculpted a memorial to the actor Sir Cedric Hardwicke, at the latter's birthplace of Lye, West Midlands, for Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. The memorial takes the form of a giant filmstrip, the illuminated cut metal panels illustrating scenes from some of Sir Cedric's best-known roles, which include The Hunchback of Notre Dame , The Shape of Things to Come , and The Ghost of Frankenstein . It was unveiled in November 2005.

Ent

His proposals for a 20-foot (6.1 meter) high statue of Treebeard, an Ent from The Lord of the Rings, to be erected on the Green at Moseley, near J. R. R. Tolkien's childhood home in Birmingham, have met with some controversy, but permission for its erection – originally scheduled for May 2007 – was granted by Birmingham City Council. [2] [3]

Catalogue

WorkLocation
(Birmingham unless stated)		DatePicture Coordinates
(With links to map and aerial photo sources)		Notes
James Watt's Mad Machine Winson Green Metro station 1998 James Watt's Mad Machine - Winson Green Outer Circle Tram Stop (48800549752).jpg 52°29′50″N1°55′53″W / 52.497216°N 1.931290°W / 52.497216; -1.931290 Supported by Eric Klein Velderman, Paula Woof and local school pupils. [4]
Lanchester Car Monument Nechells1995 Lanchester car sculpture.jpg 52°29′35″N1°52′22″W / 52.4930°N 1.8729°W / 52.4930; -1.8729 On the site of the development of the first British petrol-engined car [5]
Mosaics Menzies High School, Sandwell With Eric Klein Velderman and pupils. [6]
Millennium SculptureSt.Nicholas School, Kenilworth 2001With pupils [7]
Dragonfly sculptureHembrook Infants and Junior school, Warwickshire May 2003With Emma Dicks [8]
GatewayBelle Vue Primary School, Stourbridge [9]
Archway Springhallow School, Ealing With pupils. [10]
Memorial to Sir Cedric Hardwicke Lye, West MidlandsNovember 2005 Sir Cedric Hardwicke sculpture - Dudley Road, Lye (38803701042).jpg 52°27′32″N2°07′04″W / 52.458776°N 2.117764°W / 52.458776; -2.117764
BluebellSot's Hole Local Nature Reserve, West Bromwich2008 Tim Tokien - Sot's Hole Bluebell - 01.jpeg 52°31′38″N1°59′05″W / 52.527268°N 1.984727°W / 52.527268; -1.984727 [11]
GateSot's Hole Local Nature Reserve, West Bromwich2008 Tim Tolkien, Sot's Hole gate - 2013-05-20 - Andy Mabbett - 01.jpg 52°31′38″N1°59′05″W / 52.527202°N 1.984665°W / 52.527202; -1.984665 [11]
Gates RSPB Sandwell Valley RSPB Reserve Gates 1.jpg 52°32′07″N1°56′53″W / 52.535371°N 1.947992°W / 52.535371; -1.947992
Sentinel Castle Bromwich 14 November 2000 Sentinel sculpture TimTolkien 05.jpg 52°30′48″N1°47′53″W / 52.5134°N 1.7981°W / 52.5134; -1.7981
Cardinal Newman statue Cofton Park, Birmingham 2010 [12]
GateHolly Wood Local Nature Reserve, Sandwell 2012 Holly Wood Nature Reserve gate - 02.JPG 52°32′54″N1°55′32″W / 52.548281°N 1.925456°W / 52.548281; -1.925456 [13]
Map all coordinates using: OpenStreetMap  
Download coordinates as: KML

Tolkien also undertook the redesign of Lea Hall railway station, Birmingham, with Eric Klein Velderman; completed in 1998) [14]

Other notable work

He has also worked with the singer and television presenter Toyah Willcox, designing her armour-like stage costumes and, in 2005, making a documentary film for BBC2, comparing New Zealand's successful exploitation of its movie-related J. R. R. Tolkien associations, with that of J.R.R.'s (and Toyah's) home town, Birmingham.

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Worcestershire</span> County of England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Castle Bromwich</span> Human settlement in England

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<i>Sentinel</i> (sculpture)

Sentinel is a 16-metre-high (52 ft) sculpture by Tim Tolkien, installed upon Spitfire Island, a roundabout at the intersection of the Chester Road and the A47 Fort Parkway at the entrance to the Castle Vale estate in Birmingham, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lye, West Midlands</span> Human settlement in England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lea Hall railway station</span> Railway station in the West Midlands, England

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John Francis Reuel Tolkien was an English Roman-Catholic priest and the eldest son of J. R. R. Tolkien. He served as a parish priest in Oxford, Coventry, Birmingham, and Stoke-on-Trent. He was also a chaplain at the University College of North Staffordshire and to two schools, as well as a governor of St Joseph's College. During his lifetime and after his death, there were a number of allegations of child sexual abuse against him: he was questioned by the police but never charged or convicted.

Environmentalism in <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> Theme of environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

The theme of environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings has been remarked upon by critics since the 1970s. The Hobbits' visions of Saruman's industrial hell of Isengard and Sauron's desolate polluted land of Mordor have been interpreted as comments on modern society, while the destruction of Isengard by the tree-giant Ents, and "The Scouring of the Shire" by the Hobbits, have a strong theme of restoration of the natural environment after such industrial pollution and degradation. However, Tolkien's love of trees and unspoilt nature is apparent throughout the novel.

References

  1. ↑ "Collective Art Noise". Archived from the original on 4 November 1999.
  2. ↑ "Outrage as Tolkien statue is approved". March 2007.
  3. ↑ "Tolkien statue gets the go ahead". 2 March 2007.
  4. ↑ Archived 7 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ "Birmingham Photographs – Lanchester Car Public Art". Bplphoto.co.uk. Archived from the original on 17 July 2012. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  6. ↑ "Menzies High School - News". Archived from the original on 30 October 2004. Retrieved 8 April 2006.
  7. ↑ "St. Nick's Sculpture". Archived from the original on 24 March 2012. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  8. ↑ "Arts Contact Warwickshire". Warwickshire.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  9. ↑ "Belle Vue Primary School". Archived from the original on 11 February 2006. Retrieved 8 April 2006.
  10. ↑ "Pupils get a spring in their step". Ealing Times. Thisisealing.co.uk. 28 July 2003. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  11. 1 2 "The Friends of Sot's Hole". The Friends of Sot's Hole. Spring 2008. Archived from the original on 30 June 2012. Retrieved 21 September 2008.
  12. ↑ "Tolkien relation sculpts Cardinal Newman statue". BBC News. 10 September 2010.
  13. ↑ Philpotts, Chris (26 April 2013). "Whitecrest pupils add the icing on the gate!". Great Barr Observer (1868): 5.
  14. ↑ Archived 7 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine
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