SCHOLARS have long believed that Professor JRR Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, regularly visited Stonyhurst College in the Ribble Valley.

They knew that one of his sons, Michael, taught classics at Stonyhurst and St Mary's Hall in the 1960s and '70s and that his eldest son, John, who was studying for the priesthood, was evacuated with the English College in Rome to St Mary's Jesuit seminary during the Second World War.

South African-born John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973), an Oxford professor, is one of the world's most popular fiction writers.

But proof that he stayed in the Ribble Valley had remained hidden until the recent discovery of a college visitors' book in which his name appears many times between 1942-47.

Another astonishing find was his sketch of the guest house, New Lodge, on the back of which is a personal note to the owners thanking them for a wonderful holiday. The detective work has been done by Jonathan Hewat, a teacher at St Mary's Hall, who uncovered the evidence as part of proposals to launch a new Tolkien library and study centre at St Mary's.

The woman he obtained the guest book and sketch from wishes to remain anonymous, but she is the daughter of the guest house owners in the 1940s. She remembers Tolkien visiting and being told as a child to be very quiet while he stayed at New Lodge, which is now used as staff accommodation. The first part of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Rings -- starring, among others, veteran British actor Christopher "Dracula" Lee -- is due to be released as a film later this year. The two remaining films, which have already been shot, will be released 12 and 24 months after the first one's arrival on the big screen. Mr Hewat said: "It was during his time spent staying at Stonyhurst College that JRR Tolkien penned the long-awaited story of The Lord of the Rings, encouraged to do so by numerous requests from those who had read and loved The Hobbit.

"Some of the most dramatic and vivid chapters were written during the war years -- from Gandalf's fall into darkness in Moria, written in 1941, to the long, painful journey of Frodo and Sam into Moria, which occupied much of 1944."

A photograph of the garden of New Lodge, with runner beans in full flower, seems to echo Frodo's view from Tom Bombadil's house in The Lord of the Rings (Book 1, chapter 7):

Frodo ran to the eastern window and found himself looking into a kitchen-garden grey with dew . . . his view was screened by a tall line of beans on poles; but above and far beyond the grey top of the hill loomed up against the sunrise.

The sky spoke of rain to come; but the light was broadening quickly, and the red flowers on the beans began to glow against the wet green leaves.

Mr Hewat, who now hopes to contact the trilogy's producers about the Ribble Valley connection, said: "JRR Tolkien was renowned for his love of nature and wooded landscapes. The countryside around Stonyhurst College and St Mary's Hall is richly beautiful and the area is dotted with names that are familiar from The Lord of the Rings -- Shire Lane in Hurst Green, for instance, or the River Shirebourn, perhaps named after the Shireburn family who had built Stonyhurst and owned the estate in the 16th and 17th centuries.

"The green countryside is dominated by the dark shape of Pendle Hill, famous for its association with witches, sorcery and black magic in the 16th century -- surely inspiration for Middle Earth's Misty Mountains or The Lonely Mountain?"

He said Tolkien found time to write part of The Lord of the Rings in a classroom on the upper gallery at Stonyhurst College and would take walks with his son when not writing.

"As a professor at Oxford, JRR Tolkien even taught a few lessons at Stonyhurst College during his stay," Mr Hewat said.

"He returned to Stonyhurst towards the end of his life to stay with his son in another house belonging to the college, a few hundred yards away from St Mary's Hall, in Woodfields. His love of trees continued throughout his life and he persuaded Michael to plant a copse in the garden, evidence of which can still be seen today."