A very special memento of the children’s animated series Camberwick Green, 60 years young this year, is now on display at Brighton Toy Museum, thanks to collector and model maker Julian Vince.
Private Meek is one of the only surviving puppets from Camberwick Green, the stop motion animation series created by Gordon Murray, first broadcast on 3rd January 1966, making this Pippin Fort soldier now 60 years old.
(Christie’s sold the only other known surviving model, the original Gordon Murray production puppet of Dr Mopp at auction in 2005, whereabouts unknown, for the princely sum of £300).
Julian, who has kept the model safe for years, was keen that this rare artefact go on display for the public to see, before the model disintegrated with age, but it proved hard to find him a home.
“There must be several generations who grew up with this beloved television show, and know all the songs and characters,” Julian noted.
His search prompted an appeal in the March 2026 issue of Best of British magazine, noting how Gordon Murray had burnt all the series puppets after filming ended, Private Meek initially surviving thanks to his daughter. Its now brittle nature necessitated display in a glass case for protection, the model sadly crumbling with age.
The 13-episode series, along with companion shows Trumpton and Chigley, has indeed been enjoying a renaissance of late, thanks to their inclusion on streaming services such as Apple TV and ITVX. Voiced by Brian Cant, repeated regularly, Camberwick Green introduced generations to iconic characters such as Windy Miller (who also featured in a series of Quaker Oats ads in the 2000s), PC McGarry and Mickey Murphy the baker.
Now Private Meek is on display at Brighton Toy and Model Museum, one of the world’s great toy museums, appropriately “standing guard” near its entrance.
One hour from London, located in the “artists’ city” of Brighton on Britain’s South Coast, and densely packed into a set of four Victorian cellars under Brighton main terminus station covering four thousand square feet, the museum’s displays draw on a core collection, and guest collections, comprising over twelve thousand items.
Visiting the museum is an immersive visual experience that plunges the visitor into a different world, as seen through the eyes of artists and designers responsible for the Golden Age of British and European toymaking.
Staffed mostly by dedicated volunteers, the museum also carries out nationally and internationally important restoration, research, and digitisation work, and operates a ten thousand page online encyclopaedia and image library used by individuals and organisations, worldwide.
• Brighton Toy and Model Museum, 52-55 Trafalgar Street, Brighton, Sussex, BN1 4EB | Open Tuesday to Friday 10.00am to 5.00pm, Saturdays 11.00am to 5.00pm, closed Sundays and Mondays | Official Website| Google Maps
Camberwick Green in Print, and more
The Trumptonshire Trilogy – Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley – were shown weekly by the BBC from 1966 for 20 years, all created by Gordon Murray, aided by animators Bob Bura and John Hardwick.
The first show was originally developed as Candlewick Green, but when Murray’s BBC contract arrived he was only too happy to hurriedly sign even though it erroneously referred to Camberwick Green.
Murray honed his craft in the BBC Puppet Theatre, but risked his own money on the success of the programme. Only 13 episodes of each series were made, partly because stop-motion animation is so laborious to make, but filming in colour ensured the programmes had long lives; although they were not the first children’s shows to be filmed in colour, as erroneously claimed by ITVX – that honour belongs to Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s Stingray.
While, just like other much loved animated children’s shows of the time, very few episodes were made, Camberwick Green stories appeared in Pippin and Playland and the series had its own annual for several years, the first published in 1967, and spawned many other spin-off books.
The licensing of the show for various other merchandise, too, including clockwork figures, jigsaws and games, confirms how successful it was, repeats building an enduring audience, its gentle appeal still enjoyed today: and often spoofed by Barney Farmer and Luke Healey in VIZ.
Drunken Baker by Barney Farmer is published by Wrecking Ball Press
Will the Real Camberwick Green Please Stand Up?
Camberwick Green is thought to have been inspired by the real world village of Wivelsfield Green in East Sussex, and the nearby villages of Plumpton became Trumpton and Chailey, Chigley.
(Chigley’s steam railway is, apparently, based on the Bluebell Railway).
Tim Worthington, author of The Golden Age of Children’s TV told the BBC earlier this year that Gordon Murray, who died in 2016, aged 95, had said Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley are representative of real locations which are one and a half miles from each other in an equidistant triangle.
“He said their exact location must remain a mystery as the disclosure could lead to the actual places being inundated with tourists.”
Last year, residents in Wivelsfield Green dressed in Camberwick Green costumes to protest about housebuilding plans for the village. The protest against a massive housing development, “No to WivelsTown”, has prompted over one thousand objections, thanks to a canny marketing campaign drawing attention to the village’s links with the still much-loved children’s show.
• Brighton Toy and Model Museum, 52-55 Trafalgar Street, Brighton, Sussex, BN1 4EB | Open Tuesday to Friday 10.00am to 5.00pm, Saturdays 11.00am to 5.00pm, closed Sundays and Mondays | Official Website| Google Maps
Head downthetubes for…
Iconic British animation of the first in Gordon Murray’s classic Trumptonshire Trilogy. Come and meet the village!
• Camberwick Green: The Complete Collection DVD (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
Here is a box, a musical box, wound up and ready to play. But this box can hide a secret inside! Can you guess what is in it today?
Windy Miller cordially invites you to join him and the rest of the Camberwick Green village folk in Gordon Murray’s timeless classic. Includes a 2011 interview with Gordon Murray
The shows Trumpton, Camberwick Green and Chigley were shot on a 16mm wind-up Bolex camera, which meant definition was relatively low to begin with, by the standards of today. Previous VHS copies and DVDS were made from a tape of an optical copy taken from the original print (at standard resolution). In some cases, the tapes held by the BBC had stretched. The current HD files for this release were taken from a 1080 scan of the original prints held in the vaults of the BBC at Perivale, when their post production team acquired a new digital HD scanner. The Guardian has more details here
• Trumpton3 offers a guide to Camberwick Green and its two Trumptonshire sequels
• Camberwick Green on TrumptonshireWeb
• Screen Online: The Trumptonshire Trilogy
• Curious British Telly: Camberwick Green’s Forgotten Adventures
• The Guardian: Gordon Murray Obituary
• Radio Times: On the 60th anniversary of Camberwick Green, we go inside its famous musical box | By Mark Broxton, 3rd January 2026 (Requires registration)
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Animation, downthetubes News, Licensing, Merchandise, Other Worlds
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