Even Hobbits have windows so that they can look out and see………
We loved our tour of Hobbiton, for probably the wrong reasons. It was a rough ride through paddocks to get there but our guide happily talked for the entire drive. It turned out that the rest of the people on the tour were Tolkien fans and seemed to know The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings off by heart. The guide would start a quote off and the group en masse completed the sentence. Animated in-depth discussion occurred which was reasonably informative. The guide gave details of the number of tourists per day that were visiting the site and the royalties paid to the film company who still had control over the land and were, soon, about to begin filming the Hobbit (now two films on). Knowing what we had paid (and it wasn’t cheap) Roger calculated the income generated from these tours and it was massive.
It was our guide that made the tour memorable. He had Roger and I in stitches but I don’t think that was the effect he was aiming for. At one point as we neared Hobbiton he pointed ” See that hill” he said and on receiving our chorused response in the affirmative asked if we remembered a particular scene from Lord of the Rings.
“Yes” we all said.
“Well it wasn’t filmed here” he said, his face deadpan. He went on to tell us where filming of that scene had taken place and some other facts about it. The entire tour was of a similar ilk. Most of the film set had been removed so there was actually nothing to look at but we were given the history of “this was where……. ” He told us about the tree that had been man-made and where the parts were sourced from. The old tree and a few of the hobbit houses were all that remained.
The windows were worth lingering to look at from the outside as well as lingering to look from inside out as well.
http://lingeringvisions.wordpress.com/2014/03/06/a-lingering-look-at-windows-week-10/
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
Like your story, but it does raise choler in the grumpy old heart. I detest this marketing aspect of huge movies. Of course they have to do it, as their budgets are beyond belief. But I still detest it.
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Yes I guess we all have to cover costs. It was actually the farmer making the money although the film company got some royalties for it.
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Well that’s nice to know.
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Reblogged this on Karma's little spanker.
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I’m a huge Tolkien fan, well I was when I was younger, and in my imagination the houses of Hobbiton looked nothing like these. I can see why it was filmed here though as it does look remarkably like the countryside around me. I still believe that the Hobbit and LotR is based on Shropshire and Wales 😀
Nice view from those windows though!
Jude xx
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I’m afraid my imagination had been fired by the films rather than Tolkien himself. I have bought the books and I’ll see what he makes me see. It will probably be like Mary Poppins – I will always see her as Julie Andrews although I read the book before seeing the film she was on the back cover and it coloured my impression.
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Like Jude, I’m a huge Tolkien fan too and loved this Irene. I always wondered what the shire looked like after filming finished and now I know, so thank you 🙂
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It probably looks totally different again now as they are currently filming. I don’t think they had any idea how popular the films would be and they deconstructed almost everything. Now the Hobbit is on film 3 (I haven’t seen any and I don’t know how they could turn it into three films) I’m sure it is again a hive of activity. 🙂
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Wonderful unique windows Irene!
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A little small and a little different. Cheers
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