Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Town honours puppet master for work with strings attached
IF you were to get a British-made puppet in the 1960s and ’70s, it almost certainly came from a factory situated in a Wiltshire market town.
From Punch and Judy to Mickey Mouse and even 1966 World Cup mascot Willie, around eight million of the wooden marionette puppets were made at Pelham Puppets in Marlborough.
After the Second World War, founder Bob Pelham created a range of puppets for children and set up
Many of Marlborough’s residents will remember the importance of Pelham Puppets to
the town MAYOR LISA FARRELL
workshops on the upper floors of the curved building in Kingsbury Road which faces the Town Hall.
Last Thursday, on the day Mr Pelham would have been 100, a blue plaque was put up by the town council to mark where the factory, which opened in 1947, was located.
It would move four years later to larger premises in what is now known as Pelhams Court, off London Road.
A former employee and friend of Mr Pelham, David Leech, was there for the unveiling, along with Mr Pelham’s nieces Sue and Astrid Pelham, and Mayor Councillor Lisa Farrell.
Mr Pelham died in 1980, while the company went into liquidation in 1993.
Mr Leech said: “It was a special moment given the company’s fame around the world and the fact pretty much all the puppets were made in the town. I’m grateful to the town council for all their support and preparations in bringing this about.”
At its height, the company had around 120 people working in its factory, with another 100 working from home. In 1947 a shop was also opened in No 3 Kingsbury Street.
Success at the company was helped with a club magazine called Pelpup News and then the rights to manufacturer Walt Disney characters and other characters from TV and comics from 1953.
Following the move to London Road, a huge fire disrupted work in 1961, but within a couple of weeks the firm recovered and in the late 1960s and early ’70s it was at its most successful, and was the only Britishbased puppet manufacturer.
However, in 1980, Mr Pelham died and six years later the firm moved to Cheltenham as it began to feel the impact of the demise of the Britishbased toy manufacturing sector.
In 1993, the firm went under, but since 2008 Mr Leech has produced a new range of Pelham Puppets from his workshop based in Staffordshire.
Despite so many being made, the puppets are very collectable and those of the more rare and sought- after types can be sold for thousands of pounds.
Mr Leech said: “I’m so pleased that Bob Pelham has been recognised for all he did with the placement of this plaque.”
Councillor Farrell said: “This blue plaque is a fitting tribute to Bob Pelham, who played a hugely important part in Marlborough’s history.
“Many of Marlborough’s residents will remember the importance of Pelham Puppets to the town and may well have worked in Kingsbury Street or at the factory based in London Road.
“Others will have grown up playing with the internationally famous puppets and will have their own personal favourites. Today is our chance to say thank you.”