Tomsk is the largest of the Wimbledon Wombles. He is strong, athletic and sporty - a very physical character. All Wombles love nature, but Tomsk has a particular affinity for the outdoors. From 2000 to June 2003, Wimbledon F.C. used a Womble named "Wandle" as a club mascot, named after the local River Wandle. After the 2002 relocation of the club to Milton Keynes, the licence to use the character was not renewed beyond June 2003. [21] In 2006, the club's Wimbledon successor, AFC Wimbledon, 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. Twelve years later, the club announced plans to return to their original neighbourhood; Haydons Road is also the closest station to their new ground. The office for our Newcastle law firm is accessible by train, plane, taxi and car. If you’re looking to make an appointment to meet with our team, there are plenty of convenient ways to reach us. Simply follow the directions below relating to your method of transport and we’ll look forward to welcoming you to our state-of-the art city centre office. Elisabeth Beresford took her young children for a Boxing Day 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. [3] She developed most of her Womble characters around members of her family, and named them after places the family had associations with. [4] [5] [6] [7] Plot aspects [ edit ] Physical characteristics [ edit ]

By car: Newcastle is easily accessible by road via the A1 from the north and south and the A69 from the west. There is limited visitor car parking in The Garage, the multi-storey car park serving Newcastle Helix, which is adjacent to The Spark, and should be accessed via Corporation Street only. If you are travelling using a route planner or sat-nav, the postcode for The Garage is NE4 5QB. There are also various other public car parks close to The Spark. Tobermory is second-in-command of the burrow, helping Great Uncle Bulgaria by overseeing its day to day workings. He also serves as a mechanical mastermind and has a particular gift for making useful gadgets out of ordinary, everyday rubbish. He doesn’t believe in waste and can see a use for everything. In 1970s Wimbledon, a gang of furry, pointy-nosed creatures used to spend their days meandering around SW19 collecting and repurposing human litter and rubbish. They lived inside a cosy burrow and made recycling their life’s mission. They were the original sustainability warriors, long before ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ came along. They were the Wombles.

The selflessness and communal bonds that the Wombles demonstrated weekly from 1973 to 1975, the basic respect they urged for our streets, commons, one another and by extension, the planet, are widely missing from our age. We need Wombles in 2013 – but where are they? The likely truth is that the Wombles have retreated underground for good, never again to shake their snouts at the overground mess we have made. The same is true around the world: Elisabeth Beresford imagined that each country would have a Womble colony, but they are now nowhere to be found. Apart from the Singapore Wombles, who can and often do eat their dinners off the city's pavements, so clean is it there. (True story.) Shansi is neat, precise and something of a perfectionist. She excels at the artistic, and her penmanship is so accomplished that Great Uncle Bulgaria and Tobermory often call on her to draft their important letters. Stepney chose his name from a copy of a London streetfinder book kept at the Thames burrow specially for choosing Womble names L-R Great Uncle Bulgaria, Bungo and Stepney (plus Tobermory the handyman in picture on wall), in one of the rooms in the burrow. Photo taken at National Media Museum, Bradford, UK.

Shansi is the youngest inhabitant of the Wimbledon burrow. She is a tiny Womble of Chinese descent. Soft-spoken and sometimes shy, Shansi possesses great strength of character and a directness often only found in the young. Pros and cons? No, sorry, I did say this isn't a review. I give the Womble 93/100 TPS reports, 1/5 Bernie Sanders mittens, and 9/9 Whole Foods gift cards. 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 Wimbledon Common in London, England, with the sole exception of The Wombles Go Round The World. Stepney is seldom seen without his ‘barrow’ which is always full of his latest finds. He is also very fond of music and is constantly finding old LPs and singles to play on the womblified gramophone that Wellington adapted for him.a b c d Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19thed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p.608. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.