Hundred Acre Wood is the habitat for the world's most beloved toy animals. Christopher Robin comes here regularly to fraternize with them, especially Winnie-the-Pooh, Rabbit, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, and Eeyore.
Technically, Hundred Acre Wood is only part of the forest land inhabited by Pooh Bear and friends. The Disney adaptations indoctrinated generations however to take this wood for the forest.
Alan Alexander "A. A." Milne based Winnie-the-Pooh's world on Ashdown Forest, located just south of his country house in Hartfield, England. His son Christopher Robin, on whom the namesake character is based, was fond of roaming around Ashdown, which encompasses an area called Five Hundred Acre Wood. Hundred Acre Wood, the haven for Owl, is styled after it. Unfortunately, 500 Acre Wood is now part of the private Buckhurst Park, but you can still take a walk through the wood by way of a footpath called Wealdway.
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| Wealdway cutting through 500 Acre Wood in Ashdown. Photo via Nigel Chadwick |
A pair of walks through Ashdown Forest would take you to some of the inspirations for the locations in the
Winnie-the-Pooh books. The shorter of the walks traverses Gills Lap, otherwise known as Galleons Lap or The Enchanted Place in the books:
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| Enchanting Galleons Lap. Via Amanda |
Close by is the memorial dedicated to A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard. Christopher Robin Milne himself conceived this memorial.
Also along the shorter walk is a hollow familiar to all Pooh lovers, the Heffalump Trap:
Behold the Sandy Pit where A.A. Milne imagined Baby Roo to have played:
On the other, longer walk, tourists can spot such must-see sites as the 'North Pole' and Eeyore’s Sad and Gloomy Place.
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| WATCH AND WEEP. Eeyore's Gloomy Place was abstracted from Wrens Warren Valley in Ashdown. Via Jacqui Sadler |
On the edge of the forest, cross Poohsticks Bridge, and don't bother resisting the game everybody knows.
If you can't make it to Ashdown Forest, Disney has recreated some of the most famous
Winnie-the-Pooh places in Aldenham Country Park in Elstree.
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| Back to Pooh Corner in Aldenham Country Park. Via _AKA_ |
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