I’m pleased to see that the “J.R.R. Tolkien in Staffordshire” touring exhibition reaches the Brampton Museum soon, opening there on Saturday 24th June and running until 22nd July 2017. It’s my nearest venue, and I’ll be popping along at some point.

“Brampton Museum” seems to be a fairly new moniker for the museum, and as such won’t be recognised by many. When I first saw the name on the list I assumed it must be some obscure rural Staffordshire village. It’s actually the council-run museum in Newcastle-under-Lyme, located in Brampton Park on the northern edge of the town centre.

I see there’s also a talk in Newcastle-under-Lyme from the active local branch of The Western Front Association. Dave Robbie will talk on ‘J. R. R. Tolkien and The Great War’, 10th July 2017, 7pm until 9pm at “Newcastle Methodist Church”. That could be one of many such Methodist churches, but judging by the map on the website it’s the former church lecture hall in Merrial St., close to the Council offices…

I vaguely seem to recall that this is used by the ‘University of the Third Age’ crowd, so this must be it.

Possibly there will be other such talks and events in the town. “Tolkien in Staffordshire” is not a major show in size, but I happen to know that the assistant at the town’s Museum is a big Tolkien fan. So possibly there will be add-on events around the exhibition.