Wednesday 15 February 2023

In the Footsteps of J.R.R. Tolkien – the revolver at the Imperial War Museum North

The Tolkien Randír1
Trip 1 (14 February 2023): J.R.R. Tolkien’s Webley .455 Mark 6 (VI military) revolver at the Imperial War Museum North, Manchester


Looking across the Salford Quays towards the Imperial War Museum North, Manchester

The first trip, as a “Tolkien Randír” (pilgrim1), on what I hope to be a year-long (and more?) tour of Tolkien-related sites isn’t in fact a place Tolkien visited, but a place where one of the objects associated with his life has ended up.

Note: An accompanying Twitter 🧵  for my trip can be found here.

Standing in the main concourse of Liverpool Lime Street station, my choice for getting to Manchester was apt and clear: the TransPennine Express to Manchester Victoria taking about 35 minutes. The aptness being in the final destination for that train was Hull, a place known to J.R.R. Tolkien.

After contracting Trench Fever in October 1916 whilst serving in the 11th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers at the Somme, Tolkien was sent back to England and never returned to the battlefields of France. After being posted to Hornsea Musketry Camp and Thirtle Bridge Camp (East Yorkshire), he again succumbed to Trench Fever and was sent to Brooklands Officers' Hospital in Hull to convalesce, doing so over two summers in 1917 and 1918.

Back to the present and you have two landing points in Manchester: Piccadilly and Victoria. The Imperial WarMuseum North is situated in the Salford Quays, Greater Manchester. You can use the Metrolink tram system to get from either to there – it’s about 15 minutes from Manchester City centre. 


🚄🚌 Travel tip
You can use National Rail Enquiries or The Trainline to work out rail transport to Manchester. National Express also do coaches from various locations to Manchester. Within Manchester, I’d recommend using Metrolink to get to the Imperial War Museum.
At Manchester Victoria, I purchased a £3.50 1-day off-peak travelcard. It can be used any weekday after 9.30am and any time at the weekend.

For trams from Manchester Victoria, you have to change because there is no direct route to MediaCityUK stop. I joined the Manchester Victoria to Altringham tram first, got off at St Peter’s Square (you can also change at Deansgate or Cornbrook) and got on the St. Peter’s Square to Eccles tram. It was a direct route then to MediaCityUK where I disembarked for the walk to the Imperial War Museum North.

On the return leg you are looking for the Ashton-under-Lyne tram to take you back towards the city centre. If you are needing to go back to Manchester Victoria, you’ll need to change at either Cornbrook, Deansgate or St. Peter’s Square and get on a tram bound for Bury or Rochdale.

I walked past the BBC Quay House and used the Media City Footbridge (see map on this webpage) to get to the Imperial War Museum North but you could also walk around the Lowry and use the Millennium Footbridge. I used that route on the way back.

The Imperial War Museum is free entry. There is a café, shop and toilets on ground floor. The main exhibition space is on level one, where the Tolkien object is. Level one is accessible by a stairwell and also lifts. You can see the Imperial War Museum North floor plans here.

The Tolkien object, the Webley .455 Mark 6 (VI military) revolver, is located on Level One in the World War One section. I’ve marked its location with a Gandalf Rune below.


>> click image for larger version <<

Below are some of the Imperial War Museum North records about Tolkien and his revolver and a select few other websites:

Imperial War Museum North records:

📜 Second Lieutenant J.R.R. Tolkien
📜 Webley .455 Mark 6 (VI military)
📜 What Was the Battle of the Somme?
📜 Somme map (PDF)

Imperial War Museums “Lives of the First World War” records:

📜 J.R.R. Tolkien
📜 Tolkien Brothers
📜 Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien
📜 Tea Club and Barrovian Society

The Guardian newspaper article:

“JRR Tolkien's wartime gun goes on display in Manchester” by Liz Bury (Thu 12 Dec 2013)


📷 Photo gallery

Below are some of the photographs I took from my trip on 14 February 2023 to the Imperial War Museum North.

Please click the image to get a larger view.














📜 Photo Notes:

  • Photos 001, 014, 015 and 016 – The Imperial War Museum North from various parts of the Quays.
  • Photos 002–009 – The display case showing J.R.R. Tolkien’s Webley .455 Mark 6 (VI military) revolver.
  • Photos 010-011 – John Garth’s “Tolkien and the Great War” on sale in the Museum shop along with the label connecting book to museum object.
  • Photos 012-013 – the Imperial War Museum North Poppies display.

Label from the Tolkien revolver display cabinet:


>> Click image for larger version <<

After spending time with the display showing Tolkien’s revolver, I wandered around the Imperial War Museum North itself. The World Trade Centre steelwork hit me more than expected. I had been to the site of the WTC in New York City after the 9/11 attack to pay my respects, but being confronted with the twisted steelwork felt like a punch to the guts. The exhibition space is well used and there is quite a lot to take in. I also gave time for the “Generations: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors” display area (closes Summer 2023), something I feel is necessary and worthwhile with the current climate of antisemitism rising its ugly head again.    

And then it was time to head home... 

 

📜 About “In the Footsteps of J.R.R. Tolkien”

This is the first of my 2023 blog posts under the “In the Footsteps of J.R.R. Tolkien” banner, looking at trips out to places and objects connected with Tolkien, whether correctly or not. I’ll provide information on why the place(s) connect to Tolkien, travel tips and also recommended places to visit in the nearby area.

📌 Other nearby places to visit (Salford Quays/Manchester)

🍴 Food

On the way back to Manchester city centre I decided to have lunch at Indian Tiffin Room. It’s close to the Deansgate metrolink stop.

🛒 Shopping

Before returning home, I got chance to visit my usual “Geek” haunts of Forbidden Planet, Travelling Man and Fanboy3. Forbidden Planet has a great selection of Tolkien books! 


📜 Where next for The Tolkien Randír?

Visiting the revolver at the Imperial War Museum was the closest Tolkien object/place to me. I have several potential strands I can now follow. I can continue to pursue Tolkien’s war experience or visit the nearest location Tolkien is known to have been.

The Somme and World War One strand

Tolkien was part of the 11th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers. Just outside of Manchester there is the Fusilier Museum in Bury. Note this isn’t a location Tolkien visited but will enhance knowledge of Tolkien’s war experience.

Nearby Tolkien-related locations: Stonyhurst College, Lancashire

Tolkien, and his sons (Michael and John), spent some time in the Hurst Green area of the Ribble Valley. Stonyhurst College was the focus of the Tolkien family activity here. The claims that Tolkien was influenced by the area which then reflected on landscape descriptions within “The Lord of the Rings” are disputed within Tolkien scholarship but that hasn’t stopped a “Tolkien trail” being formed and widely advertised. A trip to this location will come under Tolkien tourism, knowing there disputes to some claims but also that this is a place Tolkien did experience.

Several places have downloadable PDF assets for the “Tolkien trail”:

Further afield: Hull

Tolkien’s time in East Yorkshire during World War One is now well documented and recognised as part of the locations that inspire his mythology. From his recuperating from Trench Fever in the Brooklands Officers’ Hospital In Hull to Edith dancing for him in the village of Roos which was the spark that led to the Tale of Beren and Lúthien. The area is now dubbed “The Tolkien Triangle”.

Some notes for the area:

Further still

There is the “big three” of Birmingham, Leeds and Oxford. And there are many more sites connected with Tolkien.

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Footnote
1 The “Parf Edhellen: an elvish dictionary” notes the Sindarin word for pilgrim as:

randir
S. noun. wanderer, wandering man, pilgrim
Source: https://www.elfdict.com/w/pilgrim

The idea of this being a pilgrimage to see Tolkien-related places may seem odd to some, and though pilgrimage is a part of Tolkien’s Catholicism, this is most definitely a secular pilgrimage. The ideas behind pilgrimage are not unique to Christianity, many faiths have such aspects and the idea of secular pilgrimage is on the rise, as noted in the Guardian here. Tolkien tourism, as part of that idea, is also on the rise.

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