When staying in Stirling Road in Birmingham Tolkien was within a few hundred yards of “Two Towers” which it is said inspired the towers, Orthanc and Minas Tirith.
The “Towers” could not be more dissimilar , the first being a folly built in 1758 by a Landowner of the day, and the second, now a grade 2 listed building, is a chimney stack built around 1870, being part of a waterworks complex, now operated by Severn Trent, a picture of the chimney is at the foot of this page.
Perrott’s Folly is currently undergoing its latest ”life change,” the reasons for building the Folly is not known, possibly it was a hunting lodge, although a more romantic notion is that the tower was built so that John Perrott so that he could keep his eye on his wifes grave, the consensus view seems to favour the former view.
The Folly became a weather observatory in 1884 and remained as such until 1979 when Birmingham University moved back to the main campus, since then, the Folly was open to the public while in the care of Perrott’s Folly Company.
Currently, Trident, the housing association is administering the building, its Perrott’s Folly website says
“The Folly will be receiving a major makeover on its journey to becoming an unmissable addition to Birmingham’s tourist landscape. As part of our plans Perrott’s Folly will also become an educational training facility for young people and other groups potentially excluded from the job market, such as people suffering from mental health issues.”
JRR Tolkien and the Tolkien Trail