History
Kinver Edge is a remnant of the Mercian forest, although much planting dates from post-1945. There are two Iron Age hillforts on Kinver Edge the larger one Kinver Edge Hillfort, is at the northern end, while the other is at the southern end, on a promontory known as Drakelow Hill.
Kinver Edge is home to the last troglodyte dwellings occupied in England, with a set of complete cave-houses excavated into the local sandstone. One of the rocks, "Holy Austin", was a hermitage until the Reformation. The Holy Austin rock houses were inhabited until the 1950s. They are now owned by the National Trust. The cottage gardens and an orchard are being replanted and restored.
The area has been a popular local tourist destination since Edwardian times, when an electric tramway connected Kinver to the Birmingham tram system. It has been plausibly suggested that these cave-houses and their small gardens were the inspiration for Hobbiton in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, who grew up and spent his young adulthood in nearby Birmingham and Staffordshire.
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