Ashdown Forest

Located just over an hour’s drive from London, Ashdown Forest is the largest free public access space in the south east of England. The forest is an area of outstanding natural beauty and as such, has protection status for its wildlife — deer, sheep and birds
Over two thirds of the land is heathland and there is varied landscape including some spectacular views over the Sussex countryside.
There’s a Forest Centre, which acts as an information centre for visitors as well as being a venue for exhibitions of paintings and drawings of the local area as well as special events.
However, Ashdown Forest is perhaps most famous for being the setting for A.A. Milne’s stories about Winnie the Pooh. In Christopher Milne’s autobiography, he wrote that «Pooh’s Forest and Ashdown Forest are identical»
Fans of the little bear of small brain and his friends come to visit the forest to wander round and find the site of the North Pole and 100 Acre Wood. There’s a link to a map detailing the special places in the books though they’re not signposted within the forest.
Of course no visit to Ashdown Forest would be complete for Pooh friends without a visit to Poohsticks Bridge where you can play Poohsticks just as they did in the book
Incidentally, Christopher Milne’s original toys on whom the characters in the books were based went on tour and ended up in the New York Public Library, where they now live (except for Roo who mysteriously disappeared).
A must for any Winnie the Pooh fan!

Worth going for the little shop and the café. Both free to enter. Clothes are beautiful and unusual if a trifle expensive but make a wonderful gift or something for a special occasion. Not everything is pricey have a good look around. There is also a good selection of things for children. Café is good for snacks & light lunches, we often go for a coffee. The Llama park is an unusual outing and makes a good half days entertainment. I believe they also do Llama walks over the forest. There is also other special events through out the year such as Craft Fairs & Father Christmas.

Situated in Ashdown Forest, just south of Wych Cross is Ashdown Forest Llama Park. It’s easy to locate, being on the main London to Eastbourne road (A22). There is a moderately sized free car park.
The admission charge is £5.95 for adults and £4.95 for children/​concessions (in 2008). It is open from 10am to 5pm every day.
The park consists of some covered pens and several large fields. There are a large number of llamas and alpacas including some very young ones. There are also three female reindeer.
There is also a barn which is used as museum/​eductaion centre. The contents of this was mainly about the uses of llamas and alpacas and there was a short 8min video. There were a few hands-​on activities for the younger visitor.
Outside there is the required adventure play area for children.
Inside the main building there are toilets which appear to be well maintained, a gift shop and a coffee shop. The gift shop contains a lot of products from South America and a large range of alpaca knitwear. Whilst not expensive, they products were certainly not cheap.
The coffee shop offers home made cakes and light lunches, including Sussex Cream Tea. Where possible they use organic and/​or fairtrade products. There is a large indoor seating area and more tables outside. The prices are quite reasonable.
It is also possible to go for a walk with a llama. This is seperate from the admission charge and costs £30 per person. The walk is for about 2.5 miles and lasts approx 1.5hrs. You are taken in a group with a guide. However the minimum age for this is 14, and so we were not able to take advantage of it.
Overall it is a nice place to visit but I cannot imagine it keeping any one occupied for more than a couple of hours. It is certainly not an all-​day place.