Project Northmoor 2024

The charity was established with three objectives, one specific and two broader aims.

1) The specific aim, with an educational and heritage benefit to the public, was to

preserve the house Tolkien lived in when he wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the

Rings (20 Northmoor Road) which had come on the market. This aim was always

subject to the market forces in play so we ensured that we had other equally

important but achievable objectives should that not be possible. It sold to private

buyer so we changed our focus to our other aims.

Our other two aims are educational:

2) To advance the public knowledge and appreciation of Tolkien and the other Inklings.

The Inklings was the name given to a group that met to share their writing and

encourage each other, primarily during the 1930s and 1940s. It included C.S. Lewis

and Charles Williams, among others.

3) To advance the education in the arts and crafts, including the arts of literature and

language. We do this through encouraging new creativity, particularly in the fantasy

genre, with a mind to nurturing new voices from diverse backgrounds.

OBJ 1 : 5 NORTHMOOR ROAD

To achieve our objectives, we set up a centre just down the road from Tolkien’s house. We

continue to manage the recruitment of lodgers to live at No 5 Northmoor Road, the upper

floors of which we helped renovate to make into Tolkien/Inklings-focused rental living spaces

and a communal room for fantasy-themed activities. For some of 2024, the house was at full

occupancy and the affairs were running smoothly, which was a big achievement. Project

Northmoor admin staff continued to be involved in advertising, showing and contracting the

rooms for the future terms and academic years, as well as filling short-term gaps. In order to

foster a culture of creativity and literature, we organised shared dinners, interesting talks,

and readings of Tolkien’s work and other related literature.

OBJ 2: TO ADVANCE THE KNOWLEDGE OF TOLKIEN AND THE OTHER INKLINGS

This objective is pursued by 1) producing a podcast and doing social media about Tolkien,

the Inklings, and other fantasy writers both of that time and writing currently; and 2) in-

person and online courses.

We produced 41 Mythmakers podcasts which were downloaded over 6000 times in 21

countries, predominantly the USA and UK. Always centred on fantasy writing, the podcasts

varied from direct analysis of Tolkien’s writing (poetry, letters, drafts) to other interpretations

of the Inklings work (movies, radio dramas, theatre). It also explored themes in fantasy such

as the notion of evil, romance, or mermaids and other fantasy creatures. The podcast also

invited new and diverse fantasy authors to come and discuss their writing. We had two best-

selling fantasy writers join us – Tad Williams and Samantha Shannon – plus the famous

illustrator Chris Riddell. Episodes invited experts from across the range of media and

academia, and received warm feedback from listeners. Project Northmoor also engages in a

range of social media, including Instagram and Facebook, where we now have more than

70,000 followers. We used Facebook for readathons where followers join in leading on a

response to a chapter of one of the Inklings’ books.

As for courses, we didn’t run an in-person course in 2024. We ran a twice-yearly “Novel in a

Year” course online with eight individual tutorials and eight seminars . We also ran a six-

week Fantasy Writing Course with five tutors and visiting experts in April/May 2024. These

courses form cohorts of students who often stay in touch and continue to create, though on

the whole participation in online courses is down after the high point just after the pandemic

so we are rethinking this part of our activity. As a result, we also now offer several online

courses for downloading at any time to learn at the student’s own pace. One student who did

two courses with us now has his novel - a wonderful adult fantasy novel set in Oxford during

WW2 - under consideration with David Fickling Books. Another student who did the six-week

course now has a two book deal - she was already very skilled before coming to us but we

can say we encouraged her!

OBJ 3: TO ADVANCE EDUCATION IN THE ARTS, PARTICULARLY ENCOURAGING

FANTASY

As per our goal to advance the education in the arts and crafts, including the arts of literature

and language, our main focus this year was engaging with the Oxford Story Museum in their

“Here Be Dragons” exhibition. We sent £20,000 as agreed to support this important initiative,

£10,000 of which was given in 2024. Final numbers will be available at the end of the

exhibition (which runs until summer 2025) but the dragon exhibition has been open to the

100,000 visitors the Story Museum gets on average each year. As for ticketed events, in

2024 there were 20 special events with 970 participants. Notable was an event with

Cressida Cowell (bestselling author of How to Train Your Dragon and many other books for

children) that drew large crowds and helped promote Oxford Centre for Fantasy. We were

able to take aspiring writers to meet her in advance of the session. Another highlight was the

Professor John Holmes Tolkien lecture, recreating a lecture on dragons given by Tolkien in

1938.

Also important to note that 2023’s charitable support to Light From Africa, a South African

charity where Tolkien was born, continues to show benefit. They are a charity dedicated to

setting up libraries in deprived areas of South Africa, and they opened their third rural library

in the Western Cape, equipped with new books, library staff, and technical support. Their

emphasis is on providing books in local languages, starting book clubs, and making the

libraries sustainable.

One of our main goals for the year was to reduce spending to sit comfortably within our

reserves. This has been achieved. We went down to one paid part-time staff member (an

administrator), with the chief executive moving on her suggestion to an unpaid volunteer role

from September. Outsourced work was reduced to producing the podcast only, also saving

money.