Tolkien got his inspiration from all over Warwickshire & Birmingham. There's a tower near where he lived in Brum that was the basis of Isenguard (I'm pretty sure it it, anyway); Warwick (where Tolkien got married) gave him the idea for some of the background stories for the world he created.
Bedon Hill & the Malverns bear an uncanny resembleance to Bree & the Weather Hills.
As well as the local countryside, Tolkien was influenced by his strong Catholic beliefs & anti-indurialisation sentiments. Lord of the Rings is basically considered to be a story about the evils of industrialization (Sauron & his orcs etc) and the fight for survival of a more simple and innocent time, with a good helping of analogous Bible stories (the creation story in The Silmirillion is a rewritten version of Genesis)
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