Original Winnie the Pooh bridge goes up for sale

Report by Hsin-Yi Lo

The iconic original Pooh Sticks Bridge is back on the market again. 

The bridge was made famous by AA Milne’s story of the beloved teddy bear and his friends who live in the fictional Hundred Acre Forest, which is based on Ashdown Forest in East Sussex.

The landmark is also renowned as the very spot where Pooh invented the game Pooh Sticks. It was first mentioned in The House Upon Pooh Corner 1928. Pooh, while standing on the bridge, accidentally dropped a fir-cone in the river.

He was surprised to discover the cone appeared on the other side of the bridge and thus the game was invented.

The game is so venerated there is an annual World Pooh Sticks Championship but the tournament was postponed in 2021 and 2022 due to COVID. It is set to resume in May in Sandford Lock, when it will also celebrate its 40^th anniversary.

William Sackville, the 11^th Earl De La Warr and owner of Buckhurst Park Estate in Withyham purchased the original bridge for £131,625 in 2021 at an auction, and had plans to relocate the bridge near its original home.

However, he told Tatler Magazine at the beginning of this month: “For family reasons which I’d rather not go into…the estate has got to raise money, therefore much as I’m loathe to sell the bridge, I think that’s what I’ll have to do.”

The bridge, previously named Posingford Bridge, was constructed in 1907 and has undergone a series of restorations. In 1979, the bridge was partially restored, renamed Pooh Sticks Bridge and opened by Christopher Robin, the son of AA Milne.

However, the bridge fell into a poor state due to the vast number of visitors and was dismantled in 1999. A replica was built and is in Hartfield, which sits at the edge of Ashdown Forest.

The original structure was stored in East Sussex County Council’s depot.

In 2019, two dedicated Winnie the Pooh fans, Mike Westphal from Kent, and his friend Richard Regan persuaded council officers to allow them to reconstruct the original bridge.