Christopher Robin’s 16th-century East Sussex childhood home (on nine, not 100 acres) on the market
Cotchford Farm, the East Sussex childhood home of Christopher Robin Milne and setting for the Winnie the Pooh stories, has been listed for sale through Savills UK. The author A A Milne lived there on and off from 1924 with his wife, Dorothy and son, Christopher Robin.
It’s the first time in over four decades the 16th-century house has been offered for sale.
The house in the Ashdown Forest, Sussex, was the Milne family home for over three decades.
It was the inspiration for many of the poems and stories written by AA Milne featuring his young son and the most famous teddy bear in the world. Nearby are the "100 Aker Wood", "the six pine trees" and the Poohsticks Bridge. The bridge was rebuilt about 10 years ago to accommodate the Winnie the Pooh fans who flock to the district, and strip the surrounding trees and then watch their twigs float in races downstream.
A statue of Christopher Robin as a child and a sundial carved with Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore, Rabbit and Owl – both commissioned by Dorothy Milne for her husband – still stand in the Hartfield garden she created .
The six-bedroom house sits on nine acres.
In 1968 Brian Jones, the founding member of The Rolling Stones, bought Cotchford Farm for £35,000, dying a year later at the age of 27. In the 1960s and 1970s all the Rolling Stones acquired country mansions with Mick Jagger buying Elizabethan Stargroves in East End, Newbury, Berkshire, which had been owned by Oliver Cromwell. Charlie Watts bought Peckhams, a property in West Sussex from Lord Shawcross; Bill Wyman acquired a property in Suffolk; and Keith Richards bought Redlands in West Wittering, West Sussex.
Cotchford Farm last sold in 1970 when bought by Alastair Johns, a property developer, and his wife, Harriet.
Savills is stating a guide price of £2 million for the freehold.
Its original section dates back to about 1580 but the next four centuries brought with them numerous modifications.
Robert Jacobs of Savills Tunbridge Wells office is handling the sale.
“This is the most idyllic house in an exquisite setting and captivates everyone who sees it," he says.
"It is easy to understand why Christopher Robin Milne says in his autobiography The Enchanted Places: ‘Cotchford was different... Cotchford was ours and on an autumn morning in 1925 we ... drove down to take possession. No, I have got it wrong. It was Cotchford that took possession of us’."
