Collector’s item BBC recordings of The Hobbit have been bizarrely unearthed on a railway line.
The cassettes featuring the 1968 radio drama were found buried at the base of an overhead line mast.
And incredibly they still work.
The Hobbit was first published by Tolkien in 1937 and has since become an acclaimed children’s novel, cementing itself as a cultural phenomenon through further film adaptations.
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The BBC adaptation was broadcast on Radio 4 and was released as a cassette box set 20 years later.
It has since become a popular collector’s item, with the recordings covering the story in its entirety.
The tapes were found on the Tyne and Wear Metro in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Metro operator Nexus said it was not the typical kind of item it tended to find during renewal work, as reported by What’s The Jam.
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Rob Cochrane, from operator Nexus, who made the discovery during a routine inspection of track between Chillingham Road and Walkergate, called it incredible.
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.
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“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.”
David Punton of Nexus added the discovery was baffling and the public should not go near rail lines and hide items in this way.
He said: “We’ve no idea how long these cassettes were buried next to the Metro line.
“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.
“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 definitely don’t encourage the public to go on to the railway and hide items in this way.
“We’ve got no idea how the tapes got there. It’s baffling.”
The Hobbit, which preceded The Lord of the Rings, was first published in 1937 and has sold more than 100m copies worldwide.
It recounts the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, a home-loving hobbit.
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