Womble Mania exhibition opens at the Heights of Abraham in Derbyshire

24 July 2025

There have only been a handful of official Wombles exhibitions over the past 50 years or so, that I’m aware of. In 1974 you could visit a Womble burrow at Cannizaro Park on the edge of Wimbledon Common; in 1975-1976 there was ‘The Making of The Wombles’ at the V&A’s Theatre Museum in Covent Garden. The National Media Museum in Bradford has some puppets and props from the 1998 TV series. And in 2012, I had the privilege of visiting ‘Elisabeth Beresford and her Alderney’ featuring many of the author’s personal items, on the Channel Island where she’d lived for more than 30 years.

So I couldn’t miss the chance to see a brand new retrospective, ‘Womble Mania!’, opening in July 2025 at the Heights of Abraham, Derbyshire’s oldest visitor attraction. A few minutes’ walk from Matlock Bath train station, you take a cable car flight to the summit of Masson Hill, where the exhibition is in one of the main buildings.

As you walk through the 20-metre-long Masson Pavilion exhibition hall, a series of scenes represent different aspects of the Wombles’ history:

The Wombles’ adventures at the Heights of Abraham: a giant Wombles annual with a 3D comic strip introducing their holiday visit
How it all began - 1968: a representation of Elisabeth Beresford’s study, featuring a vintage blue Olivetti typewriter like the one on which she wrote all her books, with some family photos on the wall behind the desk
Womble mania - 1970s: a child’s bedroom filled with Wombles toys and memorabilia, with signs on the wall introducing the main characters
The Wombles’ burrow: assorted items from the classic stories, including the big black umbrella, a vacuum cleaner, and Bungo’s birthday bunting and party hat, along with some copies of The Times
Bringing the Wombles to life - 1972: a replica of the burrow entrance drawbridge door film set, made specially for this exhibition, with toys standing in for the stop-motion puppets
The Wombles become popstars - 1974: a selfie spot where you can join the band (initially just a drum kit), with LPs and facts about their musical career on the wall
Wombles today: videos of the latest CGI characters and The Wombles’ Community Charity, and three exclusive sculptures made of natural and recycled materials - ‘Big Issue Womble’ by Biz Sutton, ‘Rubbish Womble’ by Sarah Turner, and ‘Crochet Womble’ by Céline Buccomino
Womble pledge: at the end, watched over by a large portrait of Great Uncle Bulgaria, place your hand in the Womble handprint and make a promise to follow the Womble code

Throughout the ‘immersive’ installation, there are video clips on screens cleverly disguised as windows or picture frames, and audio clips playing from loudspeakers in the style of the burrow telephone system.

‘Womble Mania!’ has been a passion project for David Thornton, the Heights of Abraham’s head of marketing and a lifelong Wombles fan. He’s still planning a few finishing touches after racing to get everything ready in time for the school holidays, working with Meticulous Ltd in Leicester who created the bespoke displays.

The exhibition is expected to run for the next five years, during which it could see hundreds of thousands of visitors. David hopes it will enable grandparents to share their memories with their grandchildren while introducing the Womble philosophy. On the opening day, it was nice to hear some kids calling out “Wombles!”, showing that there’s already some awareness.

While some people walked quite briskly through the hall with just a quick glance at the exhibits, for Wombles fans there are lots of little details to notice if you take the time to look more closely, such as the lampshade hanging above the bedroom, the red car door to Tobermory’s workshop, and the sneak preview of a forthcoming book with the new-look characters, The Wombles’ Guide To Forests.

Official opening ceremony

The exhibition opened on 18 July, with special guest Marcus Robertson, the son of Elisabeth Beresford, and his wife Marianne (who inspired Alderney’s characteristics for the 1998 TV series).

Other VIPs included the owners of the Heights of Abraham, Andrew and Vanessa Pugh, and their son Rupert Pugh, who now manages the estate; the team from the new rights holders Wombles Operations Limited, and the artists who made the sculptures.

Not forgetting the Wombles themselves: Orinoco, Alderney, Tobermory and Great Uncle Bulgaria - wearing their own Heights of Abraham staff name badges - joined visitors for hugs and pictures outside the new attraction.

Rupert Pugh made a speech to welcome everyone, and thanked the people involved in creating the exhibition. To the Wombles team, he said: “Thank you for trusting us with the Wombles. We promise to take very good care of them.”

He added: “Wombles are such delightful and engaging characters with a great story to tell, with great values, taking care of the environment, and it’s been really lovely to see parents and grandparents introducing the next generation of children and grandchildren to the Wombles.”

Rupert then asked Marcus to share a few recollections. Marcus said: “My mother would have been incredibly proud. When she first came across the Wombles on Wimbledon Common and met Uncle Bulgaria and wrote all those stories about him and the others, it was an amazing thing that she did. And of course, the Wombles have always been very clean and tidy, clearing up behind Human Beings all over the world. And that’s a task that will never finish.

“She would have loved today, my mum. She would have looked at the way the Heights is as a place, the Pughs as a family, and thought the values they have and the things they are doing match exactly what the Wombles are all about, so it is a great deal of pride. My mum had an amazing imagination, and if she’d been here today, by the time she’d left, I’m pretty sure she would have looked at both young and old Mr Pugh and have come up with two new Wombles that would have been Great Uncle Matlock and his young assistant Cromford.” (Cromford is the neighbouring village.)

Marcus then cut the ribbon across the pavilion entrance, announcing with a flourish: “I declare Womble Mania open!”

Exploring the grounds

The Children’s Trail consists of six Womble doors to spot around the central area of the estate. A few of them were harder to find, so I had to refer back to the map that’s displayed at the exhibition exit. On the front of each wooden door is a clue to which Womble is inside, and when you lift the flap, it reveals the answer with some more details about their personality.

You can meet the Wombles every day during the summer holidays, and then at weekends in September and October, until half term when they’ll appear every day from 25 October to 2 November, after which the Heights will close for the winter.

In the gift shop there’s a new set of six Wombles pin badges, a special children’s T-shirt design with the Wombles in a cable car, and adult T-shirts and caps with the ‘Be more Womble’ logo, plus a shelf of the Bloomsbury paperback books.

Once you’ve seen everything Womble-related there’s plenty more to do, with two guided cavern tours (if you can handle the steep and slippery surfaces and cold temperatures), historical exhibitions and films, adventure playgrounds, and panoramic views across the valley, before ending your ‘underground overground adventure’ as it began in the cable car, back down to the base station.

Tickets to the Heights of Abraham are £26.50 for adults and £18.00 for children (free for under-5s) when you book online, or £79 for a family of four. At the gate it’s £29.50, £22.50 or £88. There’s a £5 discount (£21.50 and £13.00 online) if you travel by public transport and show your valid train or bus tickets.

Photos by Darren Stockford and Tara Stockford, with a few provided by the Heights of Abraham. Thank you to David Thornton for the invitation to the opening day, and for giving Tidy Bag a mention in the exhibition.