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''The Wombles'' are fictional pointy-nosed, furry creatures created by

Elisabeth Beresford Elisabeth Beresford, MBE (; 6 August 1926 – 24 December 2010), also known as Liza Beresford, was an English author of children's books, best known for creating The Wombles. Born into a literary family, she took work as a journalist, but strug ...

and originally appearing in a series of children's novels from 1968. They live in burrows, where they aim to help the environment by collecting and recycling rubbish in creative ways. Although Wombles supposedly live in every country in the world, Beresford's stories are primarily concerned with the lives of the inhabitants of the burrow on

Wimbledon Common Wimbledon Common is a large open space in Wimbledon, southwest London. There are three named areas: Wimbledon Common, Putney Heath, and Putney Lower Common, which together are managed under the name Wimbledon and Putney Commons totalling 460 ...

in London, England. The characters gained a higher national profile in the UK in the mid-1970s as a result of the popularity of a

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

-commissioned

children's television show Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early evenin ...

which used

stop-motion animation Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

. A number of spin-off novelty songs also became hits in the British music charts.

The Wombles ''The Wombles'' are fictional pointy-nosed, furry creatures created by Elisabeth Beresford and originally appearing in a series of children's novels from 1968. They live in burrows, where they aim to help the environment by collecting and recyc ...

pop group was the idea of British singer and composer

Mike Batt Michael Philip Batt, LVO (born 6 February 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, record producer, director and conductor. He was formerly the Deputy Chairman of the British Phonographic Industry. Having achieved substantia ...

. The Womble motto is "Make Good Use of Bad Rubbish". This

environmentally friendly Environment friendly processes, or environmental-friendly processes (also referred to as eco-friendly, nature-friendly, and green), are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that clai ...

message was a reflection of the growing environmental movement of the 1970s.

Background

took her young children for a

Boxing Day Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated after Christmas Day, occurring on the second day of Christmastide (26 December). Though it originated as a holiday to give gifts to the poor, today Boxing Day is primarily known as a shopping holiday. It ...

walk on Wimbledon Common, where her daughter Kate repeatedly mispronounced it as "Wombledon Common" ("Ma, isn't it great on Wombledon Common?"), sparking the idea of the Wombles in her mother's mind. On getting home, Beresford wrote down the idea and started developing the characters and storylines. She developed most of her Womble characters around members of her family, and named them after places the family had associations with.

Plot aspects

Physical characteristics

Wombles are essentially burrowing animals. Beresford's original book describes them as "a bit like teddy bears to look at but they have real claws and live beneath Wimbledon Common". As they mostly live in long-established burrows, they rarely use their claws even for digging. Their size and physical appearance has changed somewhat over the years: in the original editions of the books, Wombles are pictured as bear-like and between 3 and 5 feet (about 1–1.5 metres) in height, making them only slightly smaller than adult humans. This changed with the TV series, in which they were portrayed as being about knee-high to humans, with pointy snouts like those of

hedgehog A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are seventeen species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introducti ...

s. In the book and movie ''Wombling Free'' they are described as "short, fat, and furry", roughly between three or four feet (about 1 metre) in height. Wombles are herbivores and are very fond of mushrooms. They eat a variety of plants, fungi, and tree products that human beings cannot (or will not) eat, so daisy buns, moss pie, acorn juice, fir-cone

soufflé A soufflé is a baked egg-based dish originating in France in the early eighteenth century. Combined with various other ingredients, it can be served as a savory main dish or sweetened as a dessert. The word soufflé is the past participle of t ...

, elm bark casserole and grass bread sandwiches are part of the Womble menu – augmented by any food left behind on the Common by human beings. All Wombles are strong swimmers and can even survive for long periods in ice-cold water. Several sub-species of Womble are revealed throughout the books: the ''

Loch Ness Monster The Loch Ness Monster ( gd, Uilebheist Loch Nis), affectionately known as Nessie, is a creature in Scottish folklore that is said to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is often described as large, long-necked, and with one or mor ...

'' is actually part of a clan of water Wombles and the yeti of the Himalayas are giant snow-white Wombles. Wombles have a sixth sense which allows them to sense green spaces and wildlife: this is first mentioned in the ''Wandering Wombles'' but developed to a keen long-range telepathic sense by Dalai Gartok Womble in ''The Wombles Go Round The World''. Wombles are long-lived. In ''The Wombles'', Great Uncle Bulgaria recalls being "a young Womble" at the time of Queen Victoria's coronation in 1837. In the feature-length special ''World Wide Womble Day'' Great Uncle Bulgaria's 300th birthday is celebrated.

Culture and society

Though it is stated that Wombles live all around the world, Beresford's collection of stories, as well as the television series and the music, focus on a group living in

in London, England, with the sole exception of ''The Wombles Go Round The World''. Wombles care for and educate their young at a communal level. As with human children, immature Wombles are taught reading, writing and athletic skills, which they learn by playing a game called "Wombles and Ladders". (Some older Wombles play this game too, though most regard it as childish.) Below a certain (unspecified) age, all Wombles are nameless; upon being deemed to be of working age, a Womble chooses his or her name by looking through Great Uncle Bulgaria's large atlas until they find a name that suits them. Some, Bungo for example, "merely shut their eyes tight and point and hope for the best." They then leave Miss Adelaide's "Womblegarten" and join in the communal work of the burrow, which is mostly clearing up and recycling human refuse. Wombles are very careful to keep their existence secret from human beings – at least in the books and TV series – fearing that discovery of their existence will lead to the Great Womble Hunt. For the most part, adult human beings rarely take notice of them, or fail to distinguish them from humans. In the movie ''Wombling Free'' this is reversed as the Wombles seek to get humans to listen to their pleas to "make good use of bad rubbish". Wombles generally have a low opinion of other animal species, though they are never unkind to them. They have a poor opinion of humans in general, though there are exceptions, such as royalty, especially the Queen. They also have a respect for human literature; the Wimbledon Wombles maintain a large library of books left by humans on the Common, and Great Uncle Bulgaria is fond of reading ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

''.

Production

Children's novels

There were five novels and a short story collection: *''The Wombles'' (1968) *''The Wandering Wombles'' (1970) *''The Wombles at Work'' (1973) *''The Invisible Womble and Other Stories'' (1973) *''The Wombles to the Rescue'' (1974) *''The Wombles Go Round the World'' (1976) All of these were out of print for many years until they were republished by Bloomsbury, from 2010 to 2011, along with the 1973 short-story collection ''The Invisible Womble'', with all-new illustrations by

Nick Price Nicholas Raymond Leige Price (born 28 January 1957) is a Zimbabwean retired professional golfer who has won three major championships in his career: the PGA Championship twice (in 1992 and 1994) and The Open Championship in 1994. In the mid-19 ...

. The last two books are less well-known than the original four, perhaps because they appeared after the successful television series began. In ''The Wandering Wombles'', the setting moved from Wimbledon Common to

Hyde Park Hyde Park may refer to: Places England * Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London * Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds * Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield * Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester Austra ...

in central London, but ''The Wombles to the Rescue'' saw them return to Wimbledon Common. Four of the books were illustrated by Margaret Gordon. ''The Wombles at Work'' (1973) was illustrated by Barry Leith, who worked on set design for the original FilmFair series. The appearance of the Wombles in the books followed the design of the

Ivor Wood Ivor Sydney Wood (4 May 1932 – 13 October 2004) was a prolific Anglo-French' animator, director, producer and writer. He was known for his work on children's television series. Born in Leeds to an English father and a French mother, his famil ...

TV puppets, with the exception of original editions of ''The Wombles'' (1968) and first printings of ''The Wandering Wombles'', which preceded the TV series and depicted the Wombles as teddy bear-like creatures. When the 1973 animated Wombles series was in pre-production, a decision was made to change the design of the characters so that they did not resemble teddy bears, as it was felt that there were too many children's shows with teddy bear characters. There is a reference in the first book to dark brown being the colour of their fur (with the exception of the oldest Wombles whose fur turns white) but this was changed to silvery grey, save for the neck, which is black. Some of the toys and book illustrations do not show the black fur on the neck. There is an audiobook of ''The Wombles'', narrated by

Bernard Cribbins Bernard Joseph Cribbins (29 December 1928 – 27 July 2022) was an English actor and singer whose career spanned over seven decades. During the 1960s, Cribbins became known in the UK for his successful novelty records " The Hole in the Groun ...

. Beresford wrote a collection of short stories entitled ''The Invisible Womble and Other Stories'' (1973); these stories were based on episodes from the TV series, although they occasionally refer to events in the novels. In addition to these books, many annuals, picture books and children's early readers have been published over the years, some of which were also written by Beresford.

Television

stop-motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

animated series of five-minute episodes was made between 1973 and 1975, along with two half-hour specials. Narration and all Womble voices for these were provided by

. Further animated episodes, using new animation models and sets, were made by Cinar/Filmfair in 1998–1999. These were ten minutes long and had several Canadian actors provide the voices. Background music was adapted from the Wombles' records along with new compositions. A

CGI animated Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, simulators, and visual effects in films, television programs, shorts, commercials, and videos. The images m ...

series of 52 episodes, under the guidance of Mike Batt's Dramatico Productions, who bought the rights to The Wombles for Channel 5's preschool slot ''

Milkshake! ''Milkshake!'' (stylised as milkshake!) is a British children's television programming block on Channel 5 and is currently aimed at children aged 3–7. History The block debuted on Channel 5's first full day on air, at 7.30am on 31 March 19 ...

'', was announced in 2013, intended for airing in 2015.

Ray Winstone Raymond Andrew Winstone (; born 19 February 1957) is an English television, stage and film actor with a career spanning five decades. Having worked with many prominent directors, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, Winstone is perha ...

and Cribbins were confirmed as the voices of this new series. Only two of the planned episodes were screened, however, at the

Cambridge Film Festival The Cambridge Film Festival is the third-longest-running film festival in the UK. The festival historically took place during early July, but now takes place annually during Autumn in Cambridge. It is organised by the registered charity Cambri ...

in November 2016. Batt filed for bankruptcy in September 2017, and resigned as director of Dramatico Productions.

Music

Songwriter and producer

wrote the series' theme tune, but negotiated the musical rights to the characters in place of the traditional composer's fee. In an effort to promote the Wombles' first single, he had his mother make him a Womble costume, which he wore for most of the working week. After the Wombles' first chart hit, he went on to perform and produce a number of successful novelty singles as

in the 1970s. They amassed eight Top 40 singles in the UK and reached No. 55 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart with 1974's, "Wombling Summer Party" single off of Columbia Records. They were awarded the ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

'' Award for Top Singles Band of 1974. Reissues of the Wombles' music in the late 1990s and early 2000s also charted, extending their number of UK chart hits to thirteen.

Merchandise

Stop-motion animation is an expensive means of making a programme, due to the amount of time required. Animation production houses used to rely on international sales of their productions to cover costs, and merchandising was once considered a welcome bonus. Rising labour and production costs, however, have made merchandising a necessary revenue stream for any new programme. ''The Wombles'' TV series had originally been commissioned because of the popularity of the stories on UK children's TV programme '' Jackanory'', with little thought given to merchandising, so the Wombles' initial merchandising was conducted in a haphazard way. Following the overwhelming success of merchandising for the ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'' franchise, merchandising became the prime driver of and precursor to new productions. Prior to ''Star Wars'', the story had come first; and its popularity led to the commissioning of a TV series, followed by merchandise. After ''Star Wars'', the situation reversed itself, and toy design came first. Demand for Wombles merchandise in the UK was a driven by the popularity of the TV programme and books, but there were restrictions on

toy advertising Toy advertising is the promotion of toys through a variety of media. Advertising campaigns for toys have been criticised for trading on children's naivete and for turning children into premature consumers. Advertising to children is usually regu ...

in the UK that kept TV merchandising in check. The Wombles were merchandised in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Products include stuffed toys along with stationery, stickers, small figurines, bath soap, night lights, lamp shades, chocolate bars, gelatin pudding kits, posters, games, shirts, badges (buttons), cloth patches, and other items. The revival of the series in the late 1990s brought with it another wave of merchandise which included lunch boxes, umbrellas, flannels (face cloths), hot water bottle covers, slippers, a Steiff doll, and a set of postage stamps for

Alderney Alderney (; french: Aurigny ; Auregnais: ) is the northernmost of the inhabited Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency. It is long and wide. The island's area is , making it the third-largest ...

, a

Channel Island The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

that served as the name for one of the Wombles and the home of Beresford until her death. More recently, the Wombles were part of a set of UK postage stamps honouring classic British children's TV programmes. In 2013, Mike Batt and Elisabeth Beresford's two children consolidated the merchandising copyrights to the Wombles in a new company, Wombles Copyright Holdings, of which Batt became the principal shareholder with creative control held by Beresford's heirs. This included the purchase of the ''Wombles'' TV series from

DHX Media WildBrain Ltd. (formerly known as DHX Media, Ltd.) is a Canadian media, animation studio, production, and brand licensing company, mostly associated as an entertainment company. The company is known for owning the largest library of children ...

, who had acquired it with their purchase of

Cookie Jar Entertainment Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc. (also known as Cookie Jar Group and originally known as CINAR; renamed as DHX Cookie Jar Inc. from 2012 until 2014, or simply just Cookie Jar) was a Canadian media production and distribution company owned by DHX ...

in 2012.

Film

A feature-length live-action movie ''

Wombling Free ''Wombling Free'' is a 1977 British film adaptation of the children's television series ''The Wombles''. Directed by Lionel Jeffries, it stars The Wombles, David Tomlinson, Frances de la Tour, and Bonnie Langford. Plot Based on the BBC children ...

'' was released in 1977, written and directed by

Lionel Jeffries Lionel Charles Jeffries (10 June 1926 – 19 February 2010) was an English actor, director, and screenwriter. He appeared primarily in films and received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, Golden Globe Awa ...

and starring The Wombles,

David Tomlinson David Cecil MacAlister Tomlinson (7 May 1917 – 24 June 2000) was an English stage, film, and television actor and comedian. Having been described as both a leading man and a character actor, he is primarily remembered for his roles as authorit ...

, Frances de la Tour and

Bonnie Langford Bonita Melody Lysette "Bonnie" Langford (born 22 July 1964) is an English actress, dancer and singer. She came to prominence as a child star in the 1970s, when she had a notable role in the TV series ''Just William''. In the 1980s, she played c ...

. A soundtrack album was released in 1978. A region 2 DVD of the film was released by Network in 2006, containing the film in its theatrical aspect ratio, the original theatrical trailer, and archive interviews with Jeffries, Tomlinson and Langford.

Other appearances

A feral pack of Wombles appeared in BBC comedy series ''

The Goodies The Goodies were a trio of British comedians: Tim Brooke-Taylor (17 July 1940–12 April 2020), Graeme Garden (b. 18 February 1943) and Bill Oddie (b. 7 July 1941). The trio created, wrote for and performed in their eponymous television comed ...

'' in the episode " The Goodies Rule – O.K.?", engaging in a fierce wrestling match with

Bill Oddie William Edgar Oddie (born 7 July 1941) is an English writer, comedian, songwriter, musician, artist, birder, conservationist, television presenter and actor. He was a member of comedy trio The Goodies. A birder since his childhood in Quinto ...

. In 2011, The Wombles performed live at Glastonbury. The Wombles were the interval entertainment at

Eurovision Song Contest 1974 The Eurovision Song Contest 1974 was the 19th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Brighton, United Kingdom and was organized by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster British Broadcasting Corporati ...

Sport

Due to the Wombles' association with the area, some local sporting teams representing

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

are sometimes affectionately

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

d "the Wombles". These teams include the Ladies side of

Wimbledon RFC Wimbledon Rugby Football Club is a rugby union team from Wimbledon, London. The club was a founding member of the Rugby Football Union and were at that time known as the Wimbledon Hornets. The first team currently play in London & South East Pre ...

, whose mascot is "Alderney", the Wimbledon Volleyball Club, and the Wombles Netball Club. From 2000 to June 2003,

Wimbledon F.C. Wimbledon Football Club was an English football club formed in Wimbledon, south-west London, in 1889 and based at Plough Lane from 1912 to 1991. Founded as Wimbledon Old Centrals, the club were a non-League team for most of their history. ...

used a Womble named "Wandle" as a club mascot, named after the local

River Wandle The River Wandle is a right-bank tributary of the River Thames in south London, England. With a total length of about , the river passes through the London boroughs of Croydon, Sutton, Merton and Wandsworth, where it reaches the Thames. A sh ...

. After the 2002 relocation of the club to

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...

, the licence to use the character was not renewed beyond June 2003. In 2006, the club's Wimbledon successor,

AFC Wimbledon AFC Wimbledon is an English professional Association football, football club, based in London Borough of Merton, Merton, London, that plays in the EFL League Two, after being relegated from the EFL League One following the 2021–22 EFL Leagu ...

, made a licensing deal with Beresford and launched its own Womble mascot. After a naming competition in which the final name was chosen by Elisabeth Beresford herself, AFC Wimbledon announced that the new Womble would be known as "Haydon", after Haydons Road, the nearest railway station to Wimbledon's original home ground,

Plough Lane Plough Lane – named The Cherry Red Records Stadium for sponsorship reasons – is a football stadium in Wimbledon, south-west London, which has been the home of AFC Wimbledon since 3 November 2020. A groundshare with rugby league side London ...

. Twelve years later, the club announced plans to return to their original neighbourhood; Haydons Road is also the closest station to their new ground. Beresford also gave permission for a team of Wombles to run the London Marathon.

Characters

*Great Uncle Bulgaria Coburg – the oldest and wisest of the Wimbledon Wombles and their leader. He is based on Beresford's father-in-law and named after the country and the German city, respectively. He occasionally frightens the younger Wombles with his stern demeanour (and particularly his habit of glaring at them through two pairs of spectacles) but is actually very kind. He is over 300 years old by the final book. *Tobermory – an engineer, based on Beresford's brother, a skilled inventor, and named after the capital of the Isle of Mull, in the Scottish

Inner Hebrides The Inner Hebrides (; Scottish Gaelic: ''Na h-Eileanan a-staigh'', "the inner isles") is an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, whic ...

. He has a gruff and surly manner but like Bulgaria (with whom he has been friends for many years) he has a very kindly heart. *Orinoco – a shirker who loves sleep and food, styled on Beresford's teenage son and named after the river in South America. Though lazy and slothful by nature, Orinoco is resourceful and always means well, and is capable of some surprising acts of moral and physical courage. *Bungo – over-enthusiastic and bossy, named after the province of Bungo in Japan. He is Orinoco's best friend and based on Beresford's daughter. *Tomsk – an athletic but rather dim Womble, named after the city of

Tomsk Tomsk ( rus, Томск, p=tomsk, sty, Түң-тора) is a city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast in Russia, located on the Tom River. Population: Founded in 1604, Tomsk is one of the oldest cities in Siberia. The city is a not ...

in Russia. He acts as the official "Nightwatch Womble" (and Daywatch Womble on occasion). He is an extremely keen golf player, and plays on the London Scottish Golf Club course situated on the common, where human visitors have occasionally noted his talent for the sport. He is the largest and strongest of the Wimbledon Wombles. *Wellington – scientifically inclined, but very insecure and absent-minded. Named after Beresford's nephew's school,

Wellington School, Somerset Wellington School is a co-educational independent day and boarding school in the English public school tradition for pupils aged 3–18 located in Wellington, Somerset, England. Wellington School was founded in 1837. Wellington School is a r ...

, though Wellington himself later states that he chose his name from the city of

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

in New Zealand. *Madame Cholet – a very kind-hearted but short-tempered female Womble, and the cook of the Wimbledon burrow, styled on Beresford's mother and named after the town of

Cholet Cholet (, , probably from Latin language, Latin ''cauletum'', "cabbage") is a Communes of France, commune of western France in the Maine-et-Loire Departments of France, department. With 54,307 inhabitants (2019), it is the second most populous c ...

in France. She affects a French accent, though she is actually no more French than any other Wimbledon Womble and simply likes to think of herself as French. *Alderney – Madame Cholet's assistant, named after

in the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

where Beresford lived towards the end of her life. She appeared in the early books, but was not in the first TV series. Her character was revived in the second TV series. She is a precocious young Womble with a slight disregard for the rules. Later character names for the film ''

'' and second Wombles TV series developed in the same manner: *Cousin Cairngorm McWomble the Terrible – named after the

Cairngorms The Cairngorms ( gd, Am Monadh Ruadh) are a mountain range in the eastern Highlands of Scotland closely associated with the mountain Cairn Gorm. The Cairngorms became part of Scotland's second national park (the Cairngorms National Park) on 1 S ...

, a mountain range in Scotland. He was introduced in the second book (''The Wandering Wombles'') as an incredibly fierce Highland Womble clan chief. As his name suggests, he considers himself very formidable, but it is later proved that "his talk is worse than his claws". He appeared in the TV series when he visited the Wimbledon burrow. *Shansi – named after the province of

Shansi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...

in China, she came to the Wimbledon burrow on an exchange from China, and is often paired with Alderney, as Bungo was with Orinoco. She is a shy and quiet womble who is much happier with Miss Adelaide in the Womblegarten than anywhere else, and has a decided talent for art. *Stepney – an

East End The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

er with

dreadlocks Dreadlocks, also known as locs or dreads, are rope-like strands of hair formed by locking or braiding hair. Origins Some of the earliest depictions of dreadlocks date back as far as 1600–1500 BCE in the Minoan Civilization, one of Europe' ...

, who got his name from the part of London that he came from. Created for television. *Obidos – named after the town of Óbidos in Brazil. Created for television. Some other characters were detailed in the books but never appeared in the television series. *Miss Adelaide – the burrow's schoolmistress and head of the Womblegarten and a great friend of Madame Cholet, named after the city of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

in Australia. A very strict but fair Womble, she has the ability to make even Great Uncle Bulgaria feel silly. *Cousin Yellowstone Boston – named after

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowston ...

and

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. Cousin Yellowstone originally appeared in the first book when he visited the Wimbledon Wombles, where he grew up, and was subsequently revealed to be one of the only Wombles noticed by a human, resulting in what became known as "The Great Kidnapping of 1915", when Yellowstone boarded a boat from Britain after being chased by police, and travelled through most of the world, meeting other Womble tribes and nearly starving to death in Canada before finally arriving in America. He says that he always meant to return to Wimbledon, but ended up settling into his life in America more than he had imagined, later becoming the patriarch of the tribe of American Wombles in Yellowstone Park. He is roughly the same age as Tobermory, and introduced the Wimbledon Wombles to American novelties such as a deep freeze. Though he still loves his original home, he considers the States "a great country if you're a Womble". *Cousin Botany – named after

Botany Bay Botany Bay (Dharawal: ''Kamay''), an open oceanic embayment, is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point and the Cook ...

in Australia. He does not make an appearance until the fifth book (''The Wombles to the Rescue''), and at first was a quiet and surly Womble who has been living alone in the Wimbledon burrow before the Wombles' return to it. He does not have an active role until Tomsk and Wellington attempt to draw out oil from the bottom of Queen's Mere, when it is discovered that he had been attempting to grow water-plants there as a sustainable food source for the burrow. He is furious with them for destroying his plants until an alternative is offered, and he spent the rest of the books tending to his water-plants in new specialised tanks in the back of the burrow. *Great-Great-Great Uncle Hapsburg von Hohenzollern – named after two German royal houses. He is the leader of the Black Forest Wombles, and is arguably the most famous Womble in the world, though he likes to keep himself and his Womble clan to themselves. He is also one of the oldest Wombles alive, referring to Great Uncle Bulgaria as "Young Bulgaria". His Wombles are noted to be some of the most skilled with their rubbish, as he has more beautiful furniture in his burrow than almost any other and his cook, Frau Heidelberg, is said to rival even Madame Cholet. *Great Aunt Thessaly (sometimes Great-Great Aunt Thessaly) – named after the province of

Thessaly Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thes ...

in Greece. The former leader of the Wombles before Great Uncle Bulgaria, she was noted to be 'very old and very wise', and is known to have taken a young Bulgaria to see the guards of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

, and a young Cousin Yellowstone to

Wimbledon Tennis Tournament The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London, since 1877 and is play ...

. Her name was occasionally spelt "Thessally" in earlier editions of the first book. Other characters: *Nessie – a "Water-Womble", named after the famous

Loch Ness Loch Ness (; gd, Loch Nis ) is a large freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands extending for approximately southwest of Inverness. It takes its name from the River Ness, which flows from the northern end. Loch Ness is best known for clai ...

in Scotland. Nessie is part of a declining sub-species of aquatic Wombles, a larger breed with webbed paws who prioritise the cleaning of their body of water. In the Womble world, Water-Wombles, specifically Nessie, are the basis for the legend of the

, and due to Wombles being a self-contained species, Nessie dislikes the attention surrounding the legend and wishes she were as unknown as the "Land Wombles". Nessie also has two young Water-Womble charges named Ross and Cromarty. All of them are under the protection of the McWomble, and Nessie refers to him as her "best friend". *Omsk – a Russian womble who came to the Hyde Park burrow via the Russian embassy near

Kensington Gardens Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, are among the Royal Parks of London. The gardens are shared by the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and sit immediately to the west of Hyde P ...

. He later takes over the burrow in

. Named after the city of

Omsk Omsk (; rus, Омск, p=omsk) is the administrative center and largest city of Omsk Oblast, Russia. It is situated in southwestern Siberia, and has a population of over 1.1 million. Omsk is the third largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk ...

in Russia. *Cousin Idaho – Yellowstone's Native American assistant, named after the American state of

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

. *Ms Atlanta – the cook of the American burrow, named after the city of

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, Georgia. She holds great respect for Madame Cholet. *Dalai Gartok – the leader of the "Great White Wombles" of the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

, named after the Tibetan town of

Gartok Gartok (), is made of twin encampment settlements of Gar Günsa and Gar Yarsa (, Wade–Giles: ''Ka-erh-ya-sha'') in the Gar County in the Ngari Prefecture of Tibet. Gar Gunsa served as the winter encampment and Gar Yarsa as the summer encampment ...

. He and his Wombles inspired the legends of the Yeti. Dalai Gartok is also one of the oldest known Wombles, and has honed his Womble senses to the extent that he has considerable telepathic ability. *Great-Great Aunt Matilda Murrumbidgee – the leader of the New South Wales Wombles, named after

Murrumbidgee River The Murrumbidgee River () is a major tributary of the Murray River within the Murray–Darling basin and the second longest river in Australia. It flows through the Australian state of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, desce ...

in Australia. She is very fierce and irritable, though Tomsk manages to stand up to her. **Cairns and Perth – named after the respective cities in Australia. Inhabitants of the Australian Burrow. **Eucula – "cook-in-chief" of the Australian burrow. Named after the easternmost town in Western Australia. *Honourable Cousin Tokyo – the quiet and dignified leader of the Japanese Wombles, named after the capital of Japan. **Hirado – the "Workshop Master" of the Japanese burrow. Named after the city of

Hirado, Nagasaki is a city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. The part historically named Hirado is located on Hirado Island. With recent mergers, the city's boundaries have expanded, and Hirado now occupies parts of the main island of Kyushu. The components ...

. *Quetta – a womble whom Yellowstone met while travelling the world, who comes from a burrow on the

Khyber Pass The Khyber Pass (خیبر درہ) is a mountain pass in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, on the border with the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan. It connects the town of Landi Kotal to the Valley of Peshawar at Jamrud by traversing pa ...

. Named after the capital of Balochistan. *Chieftain Fashven – the oldest of the Womble clan leaders in Scotland, and the last to be able to speak Womble Gaelic. Named after Fashven Hill in the far north of Scotland. *Nanking – a Womble in a secretive Chinese community in San Francisco's

Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...

. Named after the city in China. *Tante Lille – the leader of "Les Wombleaux of Boulogne". Named after the northern French town of

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

. *Cousin Van Amsterdam – the leader of a group of Dutch Wombles. Named after the capital of Holland. *Onkel Bonn – the leader of a group of German Wombles. Named after

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

. *Uncle Dunedin – the leader of the New Zealand Wombles. Named after

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

. In the first book, Bungo is the youngest and least experienced of the team, and the story is mostly viewed through his eyes. Later Wellington (who was not introduced until the second book) took over the role of "new boy", and even later on, Shansi takes Bungo's place as the youngest working Womble. Alderney and Miss Adelaide appeared in the earlier books but were not included in the original 1970s TV series. Alderney was re-introduced in the later TV shows produced in the 1990s (the

of Alderney was actually Elisabeth Beresford's home at the time), along with Stepney (who appeared in none of the earlier versions).

Parodies

The Wombles are parodied (as Rumbles - haughty, rat-like creatures that can't pronounce their 'R's) in

Michael de Larrabeiti Michael de Larrabeiti (18 August 1934 – 18 April 2008) was an English novelist and travel writer. He is best known for writing ''The Borrible Trilogy'', which has been cited as an influence by writers in the ''New Weird'' movement. Early li ...

's novel The Borribles.

References

External links

Tidy Bag – Remembering the Wombles

The Official Wombles Website

(at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Wombles, The Association football mascots Fictional anthropomorphic characters Fictional people from London Literary characters introduced in 1968 Series of children's books