The house where A. A. Milne created Winnie-the-Pooh is on the market
Cotchford Farm, sitting on the edge of an idyllic village in Sussex, is on the rental market.
All houses have stories to tell. Few could tell a tale as extraordinary as that of Cotchford Farm, in the Ashdown Forest in East Sussex.
What's even more unusual is that while Cotchford has been standing in this spot near Hartfield for five centuries, its fame is connected to three iconic figures of the 20th century. And one of those three isn't even human, for this is the house where Winnie-the-Pooh came in to being.
Cotchford Farm has been put on the rental market, with an asking price of £9,995 per month through Hamptons, but 101 years ago it was listed for sale. The buyer was a poet and playwright writer from London named Alan Alexander Milne, who took the place on with his wife, Dorothy, and their only child, the then-five-year-old Christopher.
A.A. Milne and Christopher Robin, pictured at Cotchford Farm in November 1925.
The place, now and then, was a wonderful old remnant amid a landscape made for stories. 'There we were in 1925 with a cottage, a little bit of garden, a lot of jungle, two fields, a river, and then all the green, hilly countryside beyond, meadows and woods, waiting to be explored,' wrote Christopher Milne in his 1974 memoir The Enchanted Places. Places to be explored, then, and stories to be told by a father to his son. And like any good father, Milne Senior made the hero of the story his son, renamed Christopher Robin, and his son's favourite toy, a bear named Winnie.
The Ashdown Forest is the real-life Hundred Acre Wood of Winnie-the-Pooh stories.
Winnie-the-Pooh was published in October 1926, becoming an instant critical and commercial success, selling 150,000 copies in the first two months alone. It made Milne famous enough that Country Life sent a photographer to take pictures of Cotchford Farm in 1931; the images were never published in print, as Melanie Bryan explained in an article last year, but they do remain in the Country Life Image Archive.
One of the 1931 photographs taken for Country Life of Cotchford Farm, at a time when A. A. Milne had enjoyed huge success with Winnie-the-Pooh.
A.A. Milne staying at Cotchford for the rest of his life, dying in 1956, following which it was sold to an American couple, who added the swimming pool, and eventually sold the place in 1968 to legendary Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones.
The musician had struggled appallingly with the pressure of music, fame and drug abuse, and sought a country escape. It wasn't enough; he ended up leaving the Band in 1969, and a few weeks later tragically died at the house, aged just 27.
Cotchford Farm as it was in 1969, when Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones owned it.
The house has changed hands a few times since then, but as the pictures here show, the current owners have done an excellent job of refurbishing and updating, while retaining the house's original character.
There are exposed timber beams, leaded windows, huge fireplaces, and floorboards on which the real-life Christopher must have sat while playing with the original Winne-the-Pooh.
Yet while there are reminders everywhere of the house's history — not least statues of Owl and Christopher Robin in the garden — it's also every bit the liveable family home. There is 3,400 sq ft of space across three floors, with six bedrooms and three elegant reception rooms.
The latter incude a magnificent oak-panelled dining room, library/music room and family room, while there's also a beautifully updated kitchen.
The whole feel is of a home of exceptional warmth and character amid a setting of beautiful gardens, with outdoor swimming pool and a tennis court.
In recent times the owners have rented the house out for short stays, with a two-night minimum, but now they are seeking a longer term tenant.
Cotchford Farm is available to rent through Hamptons — see more details.
The green bedroom was apparently Christopher's room.
