Discover 8 hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do in Ashdown Forest (United Kingdom). Don't miss out on these must-see attractions: Poohsticks, Nutley Windmill, and Old Lodge. Also, be sure to include Landscape of Ashdown Forest in your itinerary.
Below, you can find the list of the most amazing places you should visit in Ashdown Forest (England).
Table of Contents
Poohsticks
Poohsticks is a game first mentioned in The House at Pooh Corner, a Winnie-the-Pooh book by A. A. Milne. It is a simple game which may be played on any bridge over running water; each player drops a stick on the upstream side of a bridge and the one whose stick first appears on the downstream side is the winner. The annual World Poohsticks Championships have been held at Day's Lock on the River Thames in the UK since 1984.[1]
Nutley Windmill
Tourist attraction in England. Nutley Windmill is a grade II* listed open trestle post mill at Nutley, East Sussex, England which has been restored to working order.[2]
Address: Crowborough Road, TN22 3HY Nutley
Old Lodge
Nature reserve in England. Old Lodge is a 103.1-hectare Local Nature Reserve west of Crowborough in East Sussex. It is privately owned. It is managed by Sussex Wildlife Trust. It is part of Ashdown Forest, which is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I, a Special Area of Conservation, a Special Protection Area and a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
This highland site is mainly grassland and heather, with areas of gorse and scattered birch, oak, and Scots pine trees. Birds include common redstart and common crossbills and there are large nests of red wood ants.[3]
Landscape of Ashdown Forest
Ashdown Forest, a former royal hunting forest situated some 30 miles south-east of London, is a large area of lowland heathland whose ecological importance has been recognised by its designation as a UK Site of Special Scientific Interest and by the European Union as a Special Protection Area for birds and a Special Area of Conservation for its heathland habitats, and by its membership of Natura 2000, which brings together Europe's most important and threatened wildlife areas.
Ashdown Forest lies within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, "...one of the best surviving, intact medieval landscapes in Northern Europe", characterised by rolling hills, steep-sided ghyll streams, sandstone outcrops, nationally high woodland cover, many interconnected ancient woods, narrow sunken lanes, scattered farmsteads and hamlets, small irregular-shaped fields, and open heaths, of which Ashdown is the greatest example.
The forest's distinctive open heathland landscape with its hilltop clumps of conifer trees has been immortalised in the illustrations provided by EH Shepard for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories of A. A. Milne, who lived on the northern edge of the forest at Chuck Hatch.[4]
Ashdown Forest
Nature, Natural attraction, Tourist information, Forest
Address: Wych Cross, RH18 5JP Forest Row
Weir Wood Reservoir
Water body. Weir Wood Reservoir is a 153.5-hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Forest Row in East Sussex. It is in High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and an area of 32.6 hectares is a Local Nature Reserve which is owned by Southern Water and managed by East Sussex County Council and Southern Water.
This is one of the largest bodies of open water in the county and it has rich and diverse communities of breeding, wintering and passage birds. Breeding birds include great crested grebe, teal, mute swan, tufted duck, little grebe, reed warbler, sedge warbler, coot and moorhen.
Weir Wood is also home to a sailing club and a fishing lodge.[5]
Emerson College
College in England. Emerson College was founded in 1962 by Francis Edmunds. It is now situated on Pixton Hill, Forest Row in East Sussex, UK. It was named after Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet and transcendentalist. For the past 50 years there has been an international community of students, teachers, and researchers living and studying on the site inspired by the philosophy and teachings of Rudolf Steiner—which he called Anthroposophy. A new book on the history of Emerson College has also been recently published.[6]
Address: Pixton, Hartfield Road, Ashdown Forest
Birch Grove
Birch Grove, Horsted Keynes, West Sussex, England is a country house dating from 1926. It was the family home of the British prime minister Harold Macmillan, Earl of Stockton, who died there in 1986. During Macmillan's time, Charles De Gaulle, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Nikita Khrushchev, Jawaharlal Nehru and John F. Kennedy stayed as guests at Birch Grove. The house is now owned by the Scottish entrepreneur James Hay. Birch Grove is a Grade II listed building.[7]