The Wombles’ burrow is for sale. That along with the house it belongs to will be one of the more quirky properties on view to buyers without an appointment between 10am and 4pm tomorrow (Saturday) as part of this year’s National Open House Day.

The warren which Womble fans saw on a music video starring the pointy-nosed animated characters based on the children’s books by Elizabeth Beresford is not in the Wombles’ normal habitat. It’s not on Wimbledon Common.

It’s in a secret garden at the end of a country lane on the Herts/Bucks border belonging to the home of actress Leni Harper.

At the end of the 1970s it was her friend, singer songwriter Mike Batt who first dreamt up the idea of creating a Wombles pop group with a passion for recycling all the junk they found spoiling the landscape – “making good use of bad rubbish.”

Great Uncle Bulgaria, Orinoco, Tobermory and the rest of the furry friends were ahead of their time.

The present commitment to taking care of the planet was in its infancy when Batt composed a catchy theme tune which quickly caught on and ensured the Wombles’ place as icons of the entertainment world. 

Fast forward to the 1990s, this time the composer is looking for the perfect location for his latest music video about the cartoon capers of his animated heroes.

Suddenly he remembers the chalk pit in his friend’s Hertfordshire garden. He asks Leni if he can borrow her burrow and of course she says Be My Guest.

Her home is called The Bothy. It‘s 15 minutes’ walk from Abbots Langley village, just over a mile from both junctions 19 and 20 of the M25.

It was originally built as the gardener’s cottage in the grounds of Hazlewood House, then owned by Henry Lord Rokeby.

Following a devastating fire it was rebuilt in 1908 and the main house is now part of Hunton Park Hotel.

Leni has owned The Bothy since 1984. At that time she was an up and coming actress. Her first job in London was in The Rocky Horror Show.

From that she moved over to Drury Lane for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas which led to a part in the film production of the Pirates of Penzance. 

She’s never stopped working since. One of her favourite jobs was appearing on The Generation Game dressed as a Womble.

She said: “When Terry Wogan first started his chat show on TV, I was singing in a review at the Kings Head in Islington. 

“One of my numbers was I Love Terry Wogan. On the second day of the chat show the producers invited me to be a surprise guest, sing my song and read out his reviews in the press. Never seen a man more surprised. ”

The Scottish born entertainer bought The Bothy with her late husband Bob.

“Anyone interested in the early models of Morgan cars will know the name Bob Harper,” she says. “He had a workshop restoring classic cars.

“We’d been looking for somewhere off the beaten track, not overlooked by neighbours. We went into an estate agents in Berkhamsted. It was a freezing cold day in February. 

“We explained we wanted somewhere totally private. We said ‘We’ve got two and six, what have you got? She said ‘Nothing’, then she said ‘wait a minute’, looked in her file and pulled out some details. She said ‘There is this’.”

Despite a legal hitch affecting the sale, the couple persuaded the agent to take them to see the house.

“It was just horrible,” Leni admits cheerfully, “but there was something magical about it.

“It was more than we wanted to pay but we liked it so much we pushed the boat out.

“We built a garage in our first two weeks here. It was one of those concrete slab things. We lived in dungarees for a couple of years.”

Today the concrete slab garage is no more. It’s been replaced by a four-car garage and a six-car car port.

Following the extension to the house the Harpers added in 1988, the layout of the ground floor is what estate agents call ‘flexible.’

There’s scope to use the rooms according to how best suits you. Today there’s a good sized main living area off the hall, separate family room, kitchen/breakfast room and an office. Upstairs are three double bedrooms (two en suite and a third with a cloakroom) and a further bedroom.

The grounds amount to about an acre. Within the garden is the “small chalk mine” discovered by the local historical society in 1969.

There’s a sunken lawn which at various times in the Harpers’ stewardship has been a cricket field, tennis lawn and football pitch.

Much of the garden is woodland which attracts an appreciative audience of wildlife. The house stands behind gates. The original boundary wall of the Hazlewood House estate provides extra privacy.

Bob died in 2002. The children are now grown up. and Leni is ready to move on. Quite where she’ll go she’s not sure yet but at 64, she still needs to be close to London. “I was up there last week for two castings.”

Consequently this is why The Bothy with its secret garden and chalk pit which created a neat and tidy burrow for a group of environmentally friendly Wombles is for sale through Savills in Rickmansworth for £1.395m.

Leni says she’ll be sorry to go: “We’ve had the best parties here. The Bonween party we held each year was special.

“We called it Bonween because it was midway between Bonfire Night and Hallow’een, it served both.

“You can make as much noise as you like. There’s no-one else around to hear you.”