A stone house in the town of Kinver in England
In 1777, author Joseph Heely published a guidebook about three West Midland gardens with a very long title - Letters about the beauty of Hagley, Envil and The Leasowes. In the book, Healey describes an event where he was walking along a cliff when he was trapped under a storm. Healey sought a shelter and noticed smoke rising from a crack in the rock. He hurried toward the smoke and was surprised to see a few houses carved into the cliffs. Healey was warmly welcomed into one of the houses he described as "curious, warm and generous". The people who make these unique homes are quite proud of their homes and happily explain to Healey how they tried to build them.
The stone in Kinver has a very special structure, easy to educate, so it can make houses located in the rocky mountains.
More than a century later, these houses will inspire JRR Tolkien to write one of the most favorite and interesting stories - The Hobbits.
Most houses have only two rooms - a living room and a bedroom, with a storage room at the back. Each room had a fireplace built of bricks, with a chimney tilting in the direction of smoke toward the outer wall. The houses even have electricity, gas and water.
The houses also have additional chimneys to warm up for the winter
No one knows exactly when the first cave houses were carved here. However, based on the timing of similar stone rooms in the neighboring district of Shropshire, it is assumed that the stone houses on Kinver Edge were created in 700 AD.
After the Normans conquered England in the 11th century, Kinver began to develop as an agricultural town and on the main route from Bristol to Chester. By the mid-17th century, a number of locals had made quarrying from nearby cliffs. And the stone houses began to form more from that, maybe the first inhabitants of these stone houses were descendants of the old stonemasons. A survey conducted in 1830 found 6 families living in these unique houses, before, there were 11 families living here.
However, the area of the houses is often quite limited, can only accommodate a few people including 1 living room and 1 bedroom.
In the early 1930s, while Tolkienkhi was studying at Pembroke University, Oxford, in one of his books he wrote the first line:
"In an earth cave there is a Hobbit living."
There are many similarities between cave houses in the 18th century and Tolkien's description of Hobbit houses. On the opening page of the book, Tolkien describes Bilbo's house:
“The door opens into a tubular hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with walls and floors tiled and carpeted, equipped with polished chairs, and lots of pegs for hats and coats. ”
... that wasn't too different from what Healey had to see when he took refuge in a stone house during a thunderstorm.
The unique architecture of the houses makes many tourists flock to this place to admire and visit
Some stories and legends surrounding the stone house in Kinver also seem to have been adapted into Tolkien's novels. There is a story that tells that when a fierce war occurred between the Kinver giants (the people living in the hills) and the Enville giants, the Enville giant was eventually kicked out of Kinver. To remind him never to return the giant Kinver threw a large rock after he approached the village of Compton. Another version of the legend is that the giant Enville was struck by lightning in the daytime and turned into stone. There are unmistakable similarities to these stories in Tolkien's novel The Hobbit. In chapter II, roast lamb, Bilbo Baggins and his friends deceived the giants until morning when sunlight turned them to stone.
The houses were abandoned for a long time until they were renovated for tourism purposes
While Tolkien never revealed the names of the places that inspired his stories, he acknowledged that many of them relied on his experience in the Midlands, England, where he lived when he was a child. young. Kinver is about 20 miles from where Tolkien lives, so it can be surmised that Tolkien discovered this place - because he loves nature and loves to explore the wild, rural areas and put it in his novel. . Tolkien may have visited the stone houses in Kinver or read about these wonderful houses.
The interior of the houses is relatively compact and simple to fit the house space
The last families who lived in these stone houses moved elsewhere in the 1960s. Then vandals took away anything of value, including doors and window frames. the wood. In the 1990s, the site was restored to its original state by the National Trust. Today, these stone houses are very attractive to British tourists.
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