Campaigners want to restore a former railway station - which they say gave legendary author J. R. R. Tolkien the inspiration to pen his Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The Gedling Village Preservation Society wants to turn a former railway station in Gedling into a community centre preserving the heritage of the site and the district's mining history.
The old station, by Shearing Hill, closed in 1960 and is owned by a separate local youth group.
Francis Rodrigues, secretary of the preservation society, said it wants to buy the building using Heritage Lottery Funding.
He said, according to local legend, Tolkien had an aunt called Jane Neave who owned a farm in Gedling - and he visited the station and district in 1914.
“Tolkien visited his aunt Jane in 1914. It’s documented that he wrote a poem called The Voyage of Éarendel the Evening Stars," he said.
"That was the poem that took him onto write the trilogy the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. His whole family visited."
Mr Rodrigues said he hopes to approach the Heritage Lottery in the future to secure funding to convert the station.
He added: "One of the uses which we see for the old building is for it to become a heritage centre for the railway history. There is a rich railway history in this area with Colwick sidings, a huge marshal area called the Colwick Loco Works.
"There’s a lot of history of mining and railways here. We see the building part of it being used as a heritage centre as well as for the young people of the area."
Jason Mordan, senior practitioner for historic buildings at Nottinghamshire County Council, said: "It's not listed at the moment which is not my primary concern. It is that there are not many of these stations left on that Great Northern line."
He added the priority is to discuss with the society how best to preserve the building and turn it into a site that benefits the public.
A Heritage Lottery Fund spokesman said: "Gedling is a priority development area for the Heritage Lottery Fund in the East Midlands.
"We are keen to speak to groups with ideas for heritage projects, and to encourage high quality applications for funding in the area.
"Our development team can offer advice and support for project ideas, and would be happy to discuss this project with the volunteers.
"We recently made an award of £74,900 to Gedling Borough Council for a project to fit out a new visitor centre in Gedling Country Park, and would be delighted to discuss similar projects with groups in the area.”
