Poohsticks Bridge

This is the bridge where Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends played Poohsticks, dropping sticks over one side and racing to the other to see whose came through first. A. A. Milne lived nearby and walked his son Christopher Robin in Ashdown Forest, and the real timber footbridge over the little stream became the one in the books, drawn by E. H. Shepard. It has been rebuilt more than once over the years, worn down by the generations of visitors it draws, but it still stands on the same spot. You reach it on a short walk down through the woods from a car park, and the game is very much still played, so bring a stick. The village of Hartfield, where Milne’s family had their weekend home, is a couple of miles to the north-east.