The Womble world record holder sells up after 40 years
Children’s TV favourites The Wombles were famous for ‘making good use of the things that we find’.
And that’s just what one fan, Gill seyfang, took to heart.
The 50-year-old has spent more than 40 years building up a collection of Wombles memorabilia which was recognised by Guinness World records as the biggest in existence in 2016. now, after achieving record-breaking status, she has decided to put it up for auction. Miss seyfang fell in love with the furry, eco-friendly creatures, who starred in a BBC1 TV series from 1973 to 1975, while still at school and they inspired her to help save the planet.
now a university lecturer, she owns 1,703 Womble-related items, ranging from soft toys to books, badges, keyrings and even Womble-themed rubbish bins.
With the collection due to go on sale today at British Toy Auctions in runcorn, Cheshire, auctioneers are expecting interest from all over the world and believe it could fetch thousands of pounds.
The collection also includes gold discs presented to the Wombles pop group – which was formed by the theme tune’s writer Mike Batt
– autographs from the show’s writers, pinball machines, toy cars, ceramics and radios.
Miss seyfang, from norwich, said: ‘Growing up in the 1970s, the Wombles were the children’s TV of choice and their environmental message of recycling and reusing rubbish made a huge impression on me. They were eco-warriors ahead of their time.
‘Then in my mid-teens, i rediscovered their musical records and was struck by just how funny and charming the songs were.’
When eBay took off in the 1990s, she was able to track down items which were not for sale in the UK.
The Wombles TV series was based on a series of books written by elisabeth Beresford.
Vanessa smith, from British Toy Auctions, said: ‘We’ve been putting feelers out there and it looks like there is a good market of collectors out there.’