UK's First Lord of the Rings Tour - Destination Middle Earth

London, UK August 31, 2004 -- DME Partnership http://www.DiscoverMiddleEarth.co.uk launches the UK's only Middle-Earth tour. A coach Tour from London will visit locations that inspired JRR Tolkien when writing Lord of the Rings including Sauron's Temple in Oxford and the original Two Towers and Shire in Birmingham.

It's nearly three years since the Lord of the Ring's movie trilogy hit our cinema screens and New Zealand became known as Middle-Earth.

Dozens of New Zealand companies of all different sizes jumped on the opportunity the film presented to them and created a huge boost the tourist industry with thousands of people from all over the world visiting the "Middle-Earth" of New Zealand.

While Peter Jackson's movie trilogy was shot in New Zealand, the trilogies author, JRR Tolkien never visited the country and spent most of his life in England. Tolkien drew inspiration from locations in English cities such as Birmingham and Oxford for parts of Middle-Earth including the Shire, The Two Towers and Sauron's Temple. Realising little had been done by these cities to capitalise on the renewed interest in Tolkien, two brothers, Richard (24) and Tom Greenwood (22), both recent graduates, set up the DME Partnership to highlight the places in England that inspired Middle-Earth.

Originally the partnership set up a website called www.discovermiddleearth.co.uk which charts Tolkien's life in England and the locations that provided inspiration for The Lord of the Rings. Using original photography DME also produced a 2005 Wall Calendar entitled "Discover England's Two Towers". Following the success of this calendar in early sales online and at Lord of the Rings events, DME have now taken it a step further with the announcement of England's first Middle-Earth coach tour - Destination Middle-Earth.

The first full day coach tour is scheduled for Saturday September 25th and will depart from Central London before heading off to Oxford, the Barrow Downs in Warwickshire and Birmingham. Passengers will be kept amused and informed by Tolkien expert guides and video clips from each location. More dates will be announced soon. Booking can be made online at http://www.discovermiddleearth.co.uk/tour

The tour costs £35 for the full day tour, which departs at 9.00am from Central London and returns at 8pm.

Before now there have been occasional small scale tours around individual key Tolkien sites but this will be the only tour to truly take passengers on a journey into England's Middle-Earth by combining many different locations in one tour. The tour will be suitable for people of all ages and is designed to be interesting to anyone who enjoyed the films, books or is simply looking for a day out with a difference.

Company Background: - DME Partnership; The partnership was formed in late 2003 by two brothers, Richard Greenwood (a recent graduate) and Tom Greenwood (then a Design student at Aston University, now graduated) to create a calendar and website based on the life of JRR Tolkien in England and the original places that inspired him when creating Middle-Earth and Lord of the Rings.

The calendar has been a big success at recent Lord of the Rings events including the Fellowship Festival which took place this weekend at Alexandra Palace. Online sales have also been good with many overseas orders, particularly from the USA. The most recent is the launch of the UK's first Middle-Earth coach tour - Destination Middle-Earth

DME is in the process of working with companies in the UK and New Zealand to benefit all involved and build the interest in JRR Tolkien world-wide.

Contact Information:
Press contact: Richard Greenwood
Telephone: +44 7730 533292
Website: http://www.discovermiddleearth.co.uk

Interviews and high quality image files for press articles available.



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