Ring related references rarely get associated with Moseley, unless you count the Jewel in the Crowns notorious “Fire starter” curry, but things look set to change later this week. The imminent release of the Lord of the Rings could see an unexpected (or depending on the way you look at it, expected) rise in so-called “Tolkien Tourists”. It is predicted that after the release of the film, masses of Tolkien fans will flock to Moseley to experience first hand the sights and smells that inspired this seminal classic.

Although Moseley has changed since Tolkien’s youth many things have remained the same. The Crafty Jungle (where Tolkien bought all of his Indonesian bookends) has already announced that it will be holding a special Middle Earth sale of unrelated memorabilia through out the spring.

In many ways it is exactly the things that have not changed that will strike a chord with our new visitors. A representative of the Tolkien estate might have told us “I feel grandfather would be particularly bemused by the fact that Moneywise has still not shut down. I remember looking forward to our trips to the village where he would let us fill our pockets with as many fancy goods and batteries as you could buy for sixpence.”

As with anything that occurs in our unspoilt village the news of a sudden economic boom has not been met with unanimous acclaim. We understand that certain elements of Moseley have initiated plans to hunt down Tolkien Tourists and poke them with sticks. In a secret memorandum that fell into our hands we discovered “Tolkien Tourists can easily be identified by their sallow, sweaty complexions and somewhat hunched poses, they are not to be confused with Harry Potter related tourist who look very similar but wear pointy hats and have no chins.” Quite why fans of Harry Potter should visit Moseley is left chillingly unclear.

This resistance to tourists is said to stem from this years earlier fight against the JRR Tolkien pub which would have brought much unwanted business and jobs into the area.

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