I really wish the celebrities had given it a bit more thought before lending their names.

Oh, have any of you been given suggestions for rooms' names if you spend the £200,000?

I have heard a few that do not really have anything to do with Tolkien and are ... well, how should I put it?

It was all Fëanor's Fault, right?

It's also an awkward time of year to be asking for piles of cash, irrespective of the cause. I know charity is important at Christmas, but this isn't really a charitable cause. This is giving someone money to fund their own business plans. I think people would be better gifting donations to people & causes that actually need it.

Khamûl wrote:

I think people would be better gifting donations to people & causes that actually need it.

Hear, hear! In this day and age there are a lot more important charities than this one (if you can actually call it a charity....).

Very strange indeed.

I am also a little confused by the mention that Just Giving takes 10 to 24 days. All their information states that a page is set up almost immediately. For a charity that is registered this would be a fairly quick process.

Some more basics on the house:

It was last sold in September 2004 for £1,6 million.

The asking price in Oktober 2019 was £4,575,000; almost three times the price; however, this seems to be due to the real estate craze in Oxford and Northmoor Road is now one of the most expensive streets ever.

The Grade II listed building status was awarded in November 2004. We have to assume the Oxford City Council slapped that thing on because the then new owner decided to do massive changes ...

Article with all of the pictures (including layouts).

The house seemingly was only sold/ rented once after Tolkien himself:

After Tolkien moved to Sandfield Road, Headington, Michael and Jean Maclagan lived at the house for more than 50 years. They both died (in 2003). Mr Maclagan was a former history lecturer at Trinity College and former Lord Mayor of Oxford. [Source]

Tolkniety blog has posted about Project Northmoor. His own thoughts about it are illuminating.

I disagree with people who have seemed to be very hostile to the Project Northmoor in the last days. I can read in some places that it has "secretive Christian aspects" or that some people involved are "bigoted". It sounds ridiculous. I worry that not only my Catholic reading of Tolkien would be called "bigoted" by these critics but also real J. R. R. Tolkien with his Marian devotion, his everyday Holy Masses, his prayers and Christian advice in his conversations and in his letters would be called "bigoted".
Project Northmoor is open to everyone, it is supported by people who are very far from being bigots and far-right (like Ian McKellen or Martin Freeman or Leith McPherson etc.). Why some people in our fandom seem to be hostile to these people? I don't understand. But I am optimistic and I believe that we will buy this House, it will be saved before it comes to other non-Tolkienist hands.

Interesting. I had not considered that asking questions (very important ones at that) would come across as hostility.

The house has been out of Tolkien hands for 70 years so clearly it is so important to get it out of "non-Tolkienist hands" and into? Oh yeah non-Tolkienist hands.

Urulókë I note that you have attempted to get answers from Project Northmoor through Twitter. Has there been any response from them?

The ProjNorthmoor twitter account has replied to others on my threads, but not directly to me.

I need to go through and compare their FAQ (updated Sunday) with my open list of questions, as on first read they did seem to add some information to that page that related to the questions I have asked.

I'm Facebook friends with Ryszard Derdziński (the author of that blog) and have had some conversations with him on that platform. As they were not in public forums, I'll have to leave them there unless he also approves of sharing.

Why some people in our fandom seem to be hostile to these people? I don't understand. But I am optimistic and I believe that we will buy this House, it will be saved before it comes to other non-Tolkienist hands.

Yeah, it's really disappointing to see this turning into an 'us vs. them' thing because that sort of defensive reaction just breeds more of the same, followed by the devolution of the debate into side-taking, name calling and a forgetfulness of the original questions raised (lord knows anyone living in the U.S. should be able to smell those things a mile away by now).

And calling people out in this manner is the oldest defense in the book when it comes to Tolkien's spiritual side. A point raised is perceived as an attack rather than a call for factual support of statements. One side wants the truth, the other side just wants to be right/to win. Instead we should all be working together to verify the facts, which Uruloke and you others here are doing such a great job of.

Stu wrote:

onthetrail wrote:

Tolkniety blog has posted about Project Northmoor. His own thoughts about it are illuminating.

I disagree with people who have seemed to be very hostile to the Project Northmoor in the last days. I can read in some places that it has "secretive Christian aspects" or that some people involved are "bigoted". It sounds ridiculous. I worry that not only my Catholic reading of Tolkien would be called "bigoted" by these critics but also real J. R. R. Tolkien with his Marian devotion, his everyday Holy Masses, his prayers and Christian advice in his conversations and in his letters would be called "bigoted".
Project Northmoor is open to everyone, it is supported by people who are very far from being bigots and far-right (like Ian McKellen or Martin Freeman or Leith McPherson etc.). Why some people in our fandom seem to be hostile to these people? I don't understand. But I am optimistic and I believe that we will buy this House, it will be saved before it comes to other non-Tolkienist hands.

Interesting. I had not considered that asking questions (very important ones at that) would come across as hostility.

The house has been out of Tolkien hands for 70 years so clearly it is so important to get it out of "non-Tolkienist hands" and into? Oh yeah non-Tolkienist hands.

Urulókë I note that you have attempted to get answers from Project Northmoor through Twitter. Has there been any response from them?

Again, there is nothing that needs saving here. That hostile response makes me even more sure that this is a terrible way for people to waste their hard-earned money. I really hope they don't succeed here, because if they do, people who likely need the money more than they do will have thrown it away.

I agree Stu. A nerve has definitely been struck with some people. I note that I have received some colourful PMs on Reddit from those who support the project and when my response was again to simply highlight the concerns I was accused of being anti-Christian. One Redditor even suggested I was just jumping on a bandwagon I didn't understand. Ironic as they had just donated to the "save Tolkien’s house from certain harm". I never got a reply about the certain harm.
Another said this website was obviously filled with crackpots because Ian McKellen knows more about Tolkien than any of us. When it comes down to such replies replies its best to move on.