Last week, one news story from Abingdon got promulgated around the world. It concerned the 1936 Annual from Our Lady’s School in Abingdon. A clue found by an American scholar led to a search in the school archives for THE “ANNUAL”, where two forgotten poems by J.R.R Tolkein were discovered.

The poems included the Shadow Man and a festive poem ‘Noel’. Tolkein, a Roman Catholic, was professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University, when he formed the friendship with the Abingdon school.

A school exhibition is planned where the poems will be displayed alongside other interesting artifacts.