The Wombles

The Wombles are fictional characters created by British author Elisabeth Beresford, originally appearing in a series of children's novels from 1968. Wombles are pointy-nosed furry creatures (though the characters in the original books resembled ordinary 'teddy bears') that live in burrows, where they help the environment by recycling rubbish in useful and ingenious ways. This "green" message was ahead of its time in the 1970s, though shared at the time by the popular science-fiction programme Doctor Who. Although Wombles live in every country in the world, the stories focus on the life of the Wimbledon Common burrow in London, England. Beresford reportedly invented the name "Womble" when one of her children referred to Wimbledon Common as "Wombledon Common"; "womble" is, to some, an inherently funny word. "Wombles" is also a nickname of AFC Wimbledon. Fans have many terrace songs in which "Wombles" are referred to. All the songs were written and performed by Mike Batt.