A snippet on Stoke, from Holly Ordway’s new biography of Tolkien. In 1962, he was prize-giver at the Catholic boys’ school of St. Joseph’s in Stoke-on-Trent. The summer event was reported in the Catholic Herald on 1st June. He was presumably able to attend because he was staying with his son who lived in Hartshill, Stoke. The school was not far away in Trent Vale, down on the London Road, thus Tolkien would likely have walked or cycled down there from Hartshill in the May weather. If he was staying at Hartshill, then we can add the summer of 1962 to the times Tolkien stayed in Stoke. Unfortunately there’s no further research in the book on Tolkien’s activities in Stoke.

Frontage of St. Joseph’s, Trent Vale.