The story behind the bizarre discovery of a 1968 BBC recording of The Hobbit on Metro track
A vintage BBC recording of JRR Tolkien’s fantasy novel The Hobbit has been unearthed on a Tyne and Wear Metro line.
The bizarre discovery of the boxed tape recording which dates back nearly 60 years was made by chance during track renewal project.
Workers found cassettes featuring a BBC radio drama based on the acclaimed children’s book buried at the base of an overhead line mast.
The tapes contain an adaptation of The Hobbit that was broadcast on Radio 4 in 1968 and then released as a cassette box set 20 years later. They cover Tolkien’s complete story and are a popular collector's item.
Head of Infrastructure Works Delivery Rob Cochrane found the tapes during a routine visit to check on the progress of track replacement work between Chillingham Road and Walkergate.
He said: “We were just walking next to the Metro line when I saw something out of the corner of my eye at the base of an overhead line mast.
“When I went over to have a closer look, I could just see the gold front cover of the cassette box underneath the ballast. I dug around that and all four tapes were there, and you could see straight away what they were, as they had ‘The Hobbit’ written in black lettering on the front cover of the box.
“It’s an incredible find and certainly not the kind of thing you expect to discover when you’re out working on the track.”
Nexus Communications Officer David Punton was part of the site visit when the tapes were found.
He said: “It was astonishing. It was the last thing that we were expecting. Without the tracks being excavated we may never have made the find. It’s up there as one of the more weird and wonderful items we’ve found during a major project.
“We’ve got no idea how the tapes got there. It’s baffling.
“When I went out on the site visit that day, I didn’t expect to come back with the main talking point being JRR Tolkien and The Hobbit.
“I’ve since listened to the recordings and I am pleased to say that most are still just about working. It’s a wonderful radio adaptation of Tolkien’s novel. As we understand it, this was made by the BBC for Radio 4 in 1968 and then released as an audio book in the late 1980s, almost 40 years ago.
“We’ve no idea how long these cassettes were buried next to the Metro line. We definitely don’t encourage the public to go on to the railway and hide items in this way.”
First published in 1937, The Hobbit, which was followed by Lord of the Rings, is one of the most successful children’s books of all time, with more than 100 million copies sold worldwide and it was adapted into a film trilogy in the 2010s.
The story is set in the fantasy world Middle-earth and follows the hobbit Bilbo Baggins on a quest to find treasure.