Click -Pooh Sticks Bridge - to see post sale press release
Click - Pooh sticks bridge - to see a video
This iconic bridge, forever
associated with A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh books was originally
constructed in 1907 in the Ashdown Forest as a sturdy river crossing for horses
and carts as well as pedestrians.
Originally known as Posingford
Bridge, Christopher Robin played on it as a child in the 1920’s with his
father, the author A.A. Milne, inventing the game of Pooh sticks which
provided the inspiration for the subsequent books.
First mentioned in The House at
Pooh Corner It describes how
Pooh accidentally drops a pine cone into a river from a bridge and after
watching how it appeared on the other side of the bridge, devises the rules for
Poohsticks. It subsequently appeared in later books being played by
the other main characters, Christopher Robin, Eeyore and Tigger and was immortalised in E.H Shepard's illustrations.
This original bridge has been restored and reconstructed over the years replicating Shepard's
original illustrations and was reopened by
Christopher Robin Milne and officially renamed by him as Poohsticks
Bridge in 1979.
By 1999 the bridge had become worn and degraded by the countless
thousands of visitors and so was replaced with a new bridge
built with considerable financial assistance from local groups and the
Disney Corporation, whilst the original was dismantled
and stored for many years in the Ashdown Forest Centre until recently when local Parish council gave permission for it to be
rescued.
It has now been fully
restored and reconstructed using
local oak for any
missing elements with each piece numbered, together with
drawings and an analysis, prepared by the council on original/replaced
elements.
