Chigley

Chigley is a small village in Trumptonshire, close to the market town of Trumpton and Camblewick Green. In this village or close by live well known characters such as Windy Miller.

Chigley is the third of a series of children’s programs produced by Gordon Murray using “stop motion” animation and was watched as part of the “watch with mother” session on BBC TV.

Unlike it’s predessors, Chigley opened by asking one of the many characters; “Are you going to Trumpton? Camberwick Green? Chigley? Can we come with you?” Then off we would go to Chigley. Camberwick Green of course was started with famous music box, and Trumpton with the famous Trumpton Clock.

Chigley reused some of the characters from Camberwick Green and Trumpton, to save filming time as the filming was long and arduous. The likes of Windy Miller and the Trumpton Fire Brigade were reused (Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grubb!)

However it introduced a host of new locations and people to us, locations such as the Biscuit factory, Winkstead Hall (Home of Lord Belborough), the Chigley pottery and TreddlesWharf. The most memorable character in my mind was not even a person, it was Bessie, the steam train. As per the previous shows, each character had it’s own song and when they went for a ride in Bessie;

“Time flies by when I’m the driver of a train, and I ride on the footplate, there and back again…….” If you are of my generation (and older) and from the UK I can gaurantee that you will know the words!

Each Chigley episode would end with the Biscuit factory whistle blowing and everyone going to the 6 O’clock dance with the music played by the Dutch Organ.

 The series Chigley reused some of the characters from the earlier productions of Camberwick Green and Trumpton, but introduced us to many more;

Lord Belborough, the lord of the manor with his butler Brackett and his gardener the aged Mr.Bilton with his aching bones. (Not to forget Bessie the steam train.)

Harry and Winnie Farthing at the pottery.

Mr Rumpling the barge master.

Mr Cresswell, the manager of the famous biscuit factory.

Mr Clutterbuck the builder with his assistants Cyril and Horace.

The council dustmen, Mr. Sneed and Mr. Gubbins

And they reused many of the original characters such as Farmer Bell, Dr.Mopp, Windy Miller and so on..

 The episodes of Chigley were originally shown between October and December of 1969. As with the previous programs there were 13 episodes, each with a different everyday type story, for which often Bessie the little steam engine would come to the rescue. ”time flies by when I’m the driver of a train…”

1.                  Lord Belborough’s secret

2.                  Bessie to the rescue

3.                  The Ballon

4.                  The fountain

5.                  The Garden wall

6.                  Binnie and Bessie

7.                  Lord Belborough’s Lucky Day

8.                  The Broken Bridge

9.                  Clay for Mr. Farthing

10.              Trouble with the Crane

11.              Apples Galore

12.              Willie Munn

13.              A Present for Lord Belborough

Writing for Chigley was achieved by Alison Prince, with Gordon Murray the creator and producer and Freddie Philips the composer.

Freddie Philips composed all of the music, fifty plus songs, and all of the sound effects for things including the sails of Windy Miller’s windmill (a sound I can still hear today over forty years on.)

Animation by Bob Bura and John Hardwick, with assistance from  Pasquale Ferrari, George Debouch, Colin Larage, and LenPalace.

The sets were created by Andrew and Margaret Brownfoot in their home in Harrow Hill. The living room, the sets did not take up too much room!

The narrator, who recorded without shoes from a “broom cupboard” in the producers home was Brian Cant, who went on to do many more years of work on “Play school” and “play away.” Brian provided all of the voices of the characters and "sang" all of the songs.

The creator and producer was Gordon Murray, without whom this wonderful series would never have existed!

Chigley was filmed in the same manner as Camberwick Green using models and an animation process known as “stop motion”, the models are positioned and one frame of film is taken. Each model is then moved a little and the next frame of the film taken, giving the illusion of continuous movement when the film is developed and viewed.

This “stop motion” animation was the trademark of the main animators of this series, Bob Bura and John Hardwick. They took Gordon Murray’s original models of the characters and added wire so that they could be posed. Each roll of film was completed in sequence without any form of editing as in filming today.

It would take a whole week to shoot one reel of film, around two and a half minutes on each reel, so each episode took around 4 weeks to film. Some sequences of film being re-used in different episodes to make things quicker and easier.

Because of the style of filming, the writters were told not to include water or fire as these would be too difficult to replicate using this process, however where windy Miller and Pc McGarry get rid of the bees actual smoke is used, but none of the characters move at all during this scene.

One of the things that many people do not notice is that when the characters speak, none of them have mouths! Unless it is the Sgt.Major shouting, otherwise the characters wave their arms to indicate who is speaking!