THE TRUMPTONSHIRE TRILOGY

CAMBERWICK GREEN,TRUMPTON AND CHIGLEY

ON THIS PAGE -a guide to Trumps recycling ie.all those characters (or things) that appear in more than one series.

CAMBERWICK CROSSOVERS INTO TRUMPTON

1) IN THE TITLES

In Trumpton's opening sequence,there's a milk cart that looks suspiciously like Thomas Tripp's.Although there's nothing to suggest that's who we're meant to think it is,and the Tripp ident obviously isn't visible.

The closing title sequence of the concert was always a mix of stock footage and specially shot bits relevant to the episode in question. And one bit of the former was a group scene in front of the bandstand,which appeared in every episode.And largely consisted of Camberwick emigres.See the "Trumpton Pt2" page for a pic.

One other bit of closing title footage features Roger Varley.He's shown amongst a group of Trumpton residents enjoying the concert in both the Miss Lovelace & the Mayor's Hat and the Miss Lovelace & the Statue episodes.

And as most of the houses in Trumpton don't have chimneys we can only assume he wasn't there on business !

3) BYSTANDERS

Farmer Bell and cow are seen watching the firemen drive by in the Mrs.Cobbit & the Ice Cream Man episode.

Doubtless the same 'jobbing' cow that doubled as Windy's "Bess" and the only one ever seen on the Bell Farm.

Mrs.Dingle's puppy "Packett" (alone on a pavement) is seen watching the Minton's drive by in Miss Lovelace & the Statue. Well,it's the same model but is it supposed to be the same dog ? No idea.

Although having said that.......Mrs.Dingle does appear twice in Mrs.Cobbit & the Ice Cream Man -buying both flowers and ice cream -although minus puppy.So if it was yours Mrs.D,keep him on a lead for goodness sake !

2)ACTIVE PARTICIPATION

Perhaps surprisingly,this is a very short category.

Mr.Crockett arrives in the Market Square to tow away Mr.Clamp's lorry in the Miss Lovelace & the Statue episode

And that's it.Yep,Mr.Crockett is the only Camberwick character who has an active role in Trumpton

And he also triggers the only "Camberwick" reference during Trumpton as the Mayor instructs Troop to "kindly ring up the garage on the Camberwick Road,and ask Mr.Crockett if he would come to our assistance".

Other reasonable candidates may well have been the Pippin Fort gang or,say,Mr.Dagenham -but no.

And extremely laudable that they didn't take such an easy route and opted for predominantly new faces.

Something that can't be said of Chigley.But more of that in due course.

4) MISCELLANEOUS "LOOKS FAMILIAR" FILE

The creation of such a fresh,new world like Trumpton did still require the pragmatic re-use of the odd bit of Camberwickery, even if the temptation to use many of the same characters was avoided.

So in addition to the above interlopers,we also see some pretty familiar-looking vehicles driving around.

Of course the thing with vehicles is that you simply turn round and say "ah,well you see it may well be the same model and the same colour,but it is actually a different vehicle" -which is a very handy thing for any model maker wishing to save some time & effort.Why build two when one will do   ?

All of which explains why Trumpton's Mr.Clamp has a lorry identical to the 'workmen's truck' in Camberwick.And why the Minton's appear to have borrowed Mr.Carraway's van.

A slight variation on that theme is the use of standard issue equipment.Which is obviously why Constable Potter's motorbike looks identical to that of PC McGarry's.Although the fact that both riders also happen to look identical is,of course,purely coincidental !

If you're a workman in Trumptonshire it would also appear that you're contracturally obliged to wear exactly the same outfits- which explains the uniform look of these characters -the 2 "workmen",Mr.Crockett,Mr.Wantage & Fred,(+ messrs Sneed & Gubbins in Chigley)

And whilst Gordon Murray was enlightened enough to have ladies running shops,he clearly drew the line at manual work. Not that it would have been workable here anyway,as no woman would be seen dead in the same outfit as another woman of course.

And as I'm on a roll,it's more than a little tempting to include the fact that messrs Harkin and Craddock look like members of the Village People.But I won't because it's irrelevant-and anyway,Trumpton wasn't a village.

Ok,I'll stop now.You've suffered enough.

Crossovers into Chigley on the way.

But there are a lot of familiar sights from both Camberwick and Trumpton,so it may take a while !