In which English county did J.R.R. Tolkien spend much of his childhood?

J.R.R. Tolkien spent much of his childhood in Warwickshire.

After returning from South Africa, Tolkien lived with his mother and brother in England. The family eventually moved to the Birmingham area, and Tolkien spent formative years in and around Sarehole, a rural settlement then associated with Worcestershire and later incorporated into Birmingham.

His childhood landscape included fields, trees, a mill, and the nearby countryside. Tolkien later connected these memories with his strong dislike of industrial pollution and with the pastoral qualities he gave to places such as the Shire.

Warwickshire is the county most closely associated with this childhood period in biographical summaries. Tolkien was not born there: he was born in Bloemfontein, and he later studied and worked in Oxford and Leeds.