Windy Miller

Origin

Windy Miller is the resident of Colly’s Mill, a windmill set atop a hill near the village of Camberwick Green, Trumptonshire, where he grinds corn and barley. An old fashioned man, he brews his own cider, rides a penny farthing bicycle, and wears a traditional blue miller’s smock and Quaker hat.

Creation

Windy Miller was one of the many characters who inhabited the children’s puppet show Camberwick Green, which debuted on 3rd March 1966 on BBC 1, and proved to be one of the best loved and most remembered of the characters. Despite only lasting one series of thirteen episodes, it spawned two follow-on shows, Trumpton and Chigley (the latter a village near Camberwick Green), with Windy also appearing in the latter.

Though together all three shows only accrued three years and 39 episodes, it was frequently repeated into the 1970s, and ten Camberwick Green Annuals were published between 1967 and 1976. Chigley had two annuals (1970 and 1971), while Trumpton had eight (1967 to 1974). All three series also had strips in Polystyle’s Pippin in Playland.