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If the Shire is the 'contemporary' England Tolkien grew up in, Buckland & the Old Forest are 'Faerie' England. Both 'worlds' are self-contained when we first encounter them, but there is a sense in which Buckland & the Old Forest remain untouched. Effectively the Hobbits wander into the world of the Bombadil poems & wander out again, leaving the inhabiants untouched (apart from the Barrow Wight - yet there may be more than one wight, so that world is left with the same cast of characters as it began with).
And yet Buckland & the Old Forest are part of Middle-earth, & if the inspiration for them is the English Faerie world, they are what they are.
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