The enchanting forest that gave the world its most famous bear

I’m not going to check how many Scots pine trees there are at Galleons Lap, as I’m reliably informed that no one can count whether there are 63 or 64.

For Christopher Robin and his bear friend, Winnie the Pooh, this mysterious inability to count made Galleons Lap the Enchanted Place.

In real life, rather than the House at Pooh Corner, this ridge-top clump of trees is called Gills Lap. A.A. Milne often took the names of real places and changed them slightly when writing his Pooh books, the first of which celebrates its 100th anniversary in October.

Most of the honey-loving, trouser-avoidant bear’s hangouts are based on spots near Milne’s East Sussex home, where he would go walking with his son – also called Christopher Robin.

The real-life Hundred Acre Wood is Ashdown Forest, which actually covers 6500 acres (2630 hectares) of mostly heathland to the south of London. That heathland, as the visitor centre is keen to point out, is rarer than tropical rainforest.

While the locals may appreciate the biodiversity, those from further afield tend to be keener on following in the footsteps of Winnie the Pooh.

Several sites dot an easy one-kilometre loop walk from the Gills Lap car park. A path opposite the wooden Gills Lap sign leaps to the Heffalump Trap. In Milne’s idyllic fictional world, this was where Pooh and Piglet dug a trap by six pine trees. In reality, there’s just one pine with a sprawling canopy, guarding a hollow.

Roo’s Sandy Pit – an old quarry that is no longer particularly sandy – lies just to the north of Gills Lap, as does a memorial with a spectacular view out over a thoroughly English-looking valley. The plaque on top of a large stone slab is dedicated to Milne and his illustrator, E.H. Shepard, who “captured the magic of Ashdown Forest and gave it to the world”.

For more insight into Milne’s background and the journey of Winnie the Pooh from whimsical invention to giant Disney behemoth, it’s worth paying a visit to Pooh Corner in the village of Hartfield, 4½ kilometres north of the Gills Lap car park.

In the 1920s, this was a sweet shop that Milne and Christopher Robin would walk to most Sundays. Now it’s part tearoom, part lovingly devoted museum, and is peppered with delightful details amid the movie posters and old book covers. For example, the name “Pooh” came about because that’s what Christopher Robin called a swan.

Also, the books were such an instant hit that Christopher Robin ended up playing himself in a boarding school stage production of Winnie the Pooh at the age of just nine and three-quarters.

By the entrance to the tearoom is a collection of washed-out honey pots, which visitors are free to take. Quite why they would want to becomes apparent on another woodland walk from the Pooh car park. The half-hour return stroll passes Owl’s and Piglet’s houses – charming little recreations that have been attached to two path-side trees – on the way to the Pooh Sticks Bridge.

This is not the original bridge – it has been twice replaced since Milne’s day – but a faithful replica. And it’s a chance to indulge in A.A. Milne’s greatest gift to the world – Pooh sticks.

Next to it, a dad says to his young daughter: “Right, there’s two sticks. Which one do you want?” She chooses, and they throw them into the stream, then wait to see which emerges first on the other side of the bridge.

Just over the bridge and around the corner is Pooh’s House. Again, it’s an adorably cute recreation, built into a tree stump. The main door is a wooden hatch with “Mr Sanderz” (the previous occupant) carved above it. By the little bell is a big pile of used honey pots.

I know, of course, where they’ve come from. But when you choose to believe they have been discarded by an adorable, hungry bear, they’re the sweetest pieces of litter on Earth.

THE DETAILS

VISIT
Ashdown Forest is a half-hour drive from London Gatwick Airport. Special events for the 100th anniversary are being planned. See ashdownforest.org
Pooh Corner in Hartfield has a helpful online guide to the Pooh sites. See poohcorner.co.uk and poohcountry.com

FLY
Emirates flies from Sydney and Melbourne to Gatwick Airport via Dubai. See emirates.com

STAY
The Dorset Arms in Withyham, the next village along from Hartfield, offers rooms in an old school cottage overlooking a field of ponies from £130 ($254) a night. See dorset-arms.co.uk

MORE
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The writer was a guest of Visit Britain.