{"id":17296,"date":"2022-02-10T16:45:47","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T16:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/ls\/?p=17296"},"modified":"2022-05-23T10:29:03","modified_gmt":"2022-05-23T09:29:03","slug":"the-mystery-of-the-hobbit-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/ls\/2022\/02\/10\/the-mystery-of-the-hobbit-door\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mystery of the Hobbit Door"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It all started with a tweet…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"This<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

One evening, Edge Hill University\u2019s very own Professor Alyson Brown posted on Twitter<\/a> photographs of what she, and many others, refer to as \u201cthe hobbit door\u201d and wondered how long it has been known as that. Before long, a colleague had tagged me into the tweets and it was suggested that, as the University\u2019s Archivist, I may be able to help find some answers. There was some speculation that the door may originally have been taller, but that the ground had been raised for some reason. Perhaps, it was reasoned, the original plans for the building might help. Others speculated that they could be a portal to Middle Earth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigations commenced<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As soon as I arrived on campus the next day, I recruited my colleague Dee McMahon to help me solve the mystery. We unfurled the large (and very beautiful) hand-drawn plans that were made by the main building\u2019s architect, Stephen Wilkinson, in the early 1930s, looking for any obvious sign of the shortened door. It was quickly apparent that some field work was required and so, camera at the ready and with images of the plans on our phones, we headed out to the main building. We took photographs of the hobbit doors which appear on both sides of the building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n