We visited the original location for Worzel Gummidge's Ten Acre Field on this perfect Summer's day today. It's not far from us and has become a bit of a shrine to old Worzel.
It's tucked away in a part of beautiful rural Hampshire, located just outside the village of Braishfield off the Furzedown Road.
"A cup o' tea an' a slice o' cake"
I think you have to be a certain age to know of Worzel Gummidge, at least the original series. It was a British children's television series, based on the Worzel Gummidge books by English author Barbara Euphan Todd. The programme starred Jon Pertwee (also of Dr Who fame) as the titular scarecrow and Una Stubbs as Aunt Sally. It ran for four series in the UK from 1979 to 1981. Very quirky and British.
Worzel Gummidge, who was created to protect the crops on Scatterbrook Farm, was not your conventional scarecrow. Given a heart, and a brain (of sorts) by the Crowman (a slightly creepy scarecrow maker with mystical powers), Worzel talked, walked and most of all, had emotions like a human being. The character of Worzel was often referred to as ‘tragi-comic’, with the television script intending you to both laugh and empathise with his most humorous, and his most heartrending moments. And there were plenty of both, as Worzel spent most of his time getting into preposterous situations whilst trying to woo the love of his life, the snobby coconut shy doll Aunt Sally.
The Worzel song.
‘You put a Wor after W, and a Wor after O, a Wor after R, and it's away we go. You put a Wor after Z, a Wor after E, a Wor after L, A zel after Wor, and you're left...with me!’
Ten Acre Field is a very special place and we got some good pics of Worzel's home on a perfect Summer's day. There's a part of me that would loved to have seen him stood in the field, or the Crowman on the field edge. A bygone age.
Here's a link to a youtube channel with all the seasons of Worzel and episode 1 for anyone who's interested in a bit of tv nostalgia.
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