At 5:30 Friday morning, we gathered
in the entry way of the YHA Salisbury and dropped our keys into the checkout
box. Then we walked out into the early morning sunshine and headed for the
train station. The 6:06 train took us to the town of East Grinstead which we
found has a Starbucks next to its train station. This was nice because, after
arriving in east Grinstead, we had a full hour to wait until the bus to
Hartfield left.
This town’s name will probably be
completely unfamiliar to you. It is the gateway town to
Ashdown Forest. The
writer A.A. Milne had a summer home in Ashdown and Milne is of course the
creator of the stories of Winnie the Pooh. Many of the places in Milne’s
fictional Hundred Acre Woods (the Pooh Sticks Bridge, Sand Pit, Eeyore’s Gloomy
Place) are based on real places in Ashdown Forest. They are all far from the
main road and difficult to visit without one’s own transport. However, the site
of one of our favorite stories, “Pooh Invents a Game and Eeyore Joins In”, is
an easy 2 mile walk from the tea shop/gift shop in Hartfield, Pooh Corner. This
is the story in which Pooh invents the game of Pooh Sticks after dropping a
pine coin into a stream.
You are advised to bring your own
sticks, as the area immediately surrounding the bridge is almost entirely
denuded of downed twigs and branches. We collected fistfuls on our hike. The entire
area is incredibly lovely – rolling green hills dotted with clover and
wildflowers, dense green tunnels through the forest, and finally, the rustic
bridge. We played several rounds before ambling back to the
Pooh Corner Tearoom for marvelous cream tea!
At 5:30 Friday morning, we gathered
in the entry way of the YHA Salisbury and dropped our keys into the checkout
box. Then we walked out into the early morning sunshine and headed for the
train station. The 6:06 train took us to the town of East Grinstead which we
found has a Starbucks next to its train station. This was nice because, after
arriving in east Grinstead, we had a full hour to wait until the bus to
Hartfield left. 
This town’s name will probably be
completely unfamiliar to you. It is the gateway town to Ashdown Forest. The
writer A.A. Milne had a summer home in Ashdown and Milne is of course the
creator of the stories of Winnie the Pooh. Many of the places in Milne’s
fictional Hundred Acre Woods (the Pooh Sticks Bridge, Sand Pit, Eeyore’s Gloomy
Place) are based on real places in Ashdown Forest. They are all far from the
main road and difficult to visit without one’s own transport. However, the site
of one of our favorite stories, “Pooh Invents a Game and Eeyore Joins In”, is
an easy 2 mile walk from the tea shop/gift shop in Hartfield, Pooh Corner. This
is the story in which Pooh invents the game of Pooh Sticks after dropping a
pine coin into a stream. 
You are advised to bring your own
sticks, as the area immediately surrounding the bridge is almost entirely
denuded of downed twigs and branches. We collected fistfuls on our hike. The entire
area is incredibly lovely – rolling green hills dotted with clover and
wildflowers, dense green tunnels through the forest, and finally, the rustic
bridge. We played several rounds before ambling back to the Pooh Corner Tearoom for marvelous cream tea! 
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