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March 2022 for us was a relaxing month that included one house sit and some great days out including a ride on a steam train and visit to the home of Winnie the Pooh!

“Rivers know this – There is no hurry. We shall get there some day”

– Winnie the Pooh –

The house sit

Without wanting to sound repetitive as I know I have said this before but the best thing about house sitting is the variety of types of accommodation that we get to stay in. Every sit we do is totally different than the last and this one was to be no different.

This month our accommodation was in a small village named Ashurst wood. A very easy thirty minute walk from the town centre of East Grinstead.

The home was a two up-two down, two hundred year old cottage. Small but brim full of character. There were two bedrooms upstairs and downstairs consisted of a bathroom, kitchen and living room. During the cold evenings with the wood burner ablaze, it was the very definition of ‘cosy’.

The Pet

The pet in our care this time was one cat – Beau

I have to say, Beau was, so far, probably the easiest pet that we have had to care for. He was really independent, not a lap cat so we didn’t end up covered in hair, and he came and went as he pleased via his cat flap.

Beau had a really lovely temperament. He loved to play with his feather-on-a-stick and, as cats do, he loved to sleep!

He really was a pleasure to have around and is definitely high up in our list of ‘best cats so far’!

Location, Location, Location.

Ashurst Wood is a lovely semi-rural village situated about two miles from the town of East Grinstead. Being on the edge of the Ashdown forest, the cottage we stayed in was surrounded by lovely country walks yet we could easily walk to the fairly large town of East Grinstead in little over half an hour.

The village of Ashurst Wood felt really rural but did have a local shop, butcher, hairdressers and pub. A 15-minute walk to the next village took you to ‘Forest Row’. This was a smaller village but still had quite a a few local independent shops, a petrol station, two small supermarkets, a hotel, and the all important village pub

There was so much to see and do in the area during our stay and the 291 bus service quickly became our best friend. This bus route connected a long, twenty five mile string of towns and villages from Crawley to the west and Royal Tunbridge Wells to the east with East Grinstead midway between the two.Luckily for us, there was a bus stop right outside our front door.

We travelled the whole length of the bus route on quite a few occasions, visiting the main towns and also stopping off at some of the pretty, smaller villages along the route.

Hartfield

One of the the villages along the 291 route was Hartfield. Famous for being the home of probably the most famous bear in the world – Winnie the Pooh!

Hartfield was the home of A.A. Milne, the author of the Winnie the Pooh books. He moved here in 1925 with his wife and son Christopher (his inspiration for the character of Christopher Robin)

There are many other places that inspired Milne in and around Hartfield. Many of these eventually found their way entwined into the adventures of Winnie the Pooh. These include Gills Lap (The Enchanted Place) , Piglet’s house ( Cotchford farm) and The 100 Aker wood ( Ashdown forest ) to name just a few!

Pooh Sticks Bridge!

A lovely walk down tracks and across fields (take sensible shoes!) will take you to Pooh Bridge. In the books, Winnie the Pooh and his friends often played the game ‘Poohsticks’ here. The bridge was first mentioned in ‘The House at Pooh Corner’ and appeared again on numerous occasions in following stories. 

The bridge was originally built in Ashdown forest in 1907. Over the years it fell into disrepair, possibly due to the wear and tear inflicted on it by the thousands of visitors that it draws each year. The local council said that the cost to repair the bridge was prohibitive so a group of Pooh fans had the idea to appeal to Disney for help. It was a long shot but the idea worked. In 1999, with the help of a large donation from Disney the bridge was completely renovated back to its former glory.

We ended the day with lunch at ‘Pooh Corner’ – A lovely Pooh museum/souvenir shop/tea room. The tea rooms previously were a bakers and sweet shop. It was here where Christopher Robin Milne would visit for his sweets as a child.

All in all, we had a really nice day out and, although on the day we went there were very few people about, we were told the village gets visited by thousands of Winnie the Pooh tourists each year.

The Bluebell Railway

We took advantage of the unusually March sunny weather that we were getting during our stay and decided to pay a visit to the Bluebell Railway.

The Bluebell railway is a track of 11 miles that connects four stations. East Grinstead, Horsted Keynes, Kings cote and Sheffield Park. Each perfectly preserved in different time periods of rail history.

You get to travel in a vintage carriage pulled by a beautifully preserved steam train. The journey is short and the pace is slow but the sound of the train, smell of the burning coal, and sight of all the staff dressed in period clothing quickly takes you back to a bygone age of train travel.

You can hop on and hop off at each station to take photos or to visit the shops , cafes and museums along the way.

A warm wait for your next train

We left in the morning and made a full day of it, stopping at every station until we arrived at the final stop of Sheffield Park where we found a lovely pub for lunch before catching the last train home for a leisurely ride back to East Grinstead.

The railway is run by volunteers and rail enthusiasts and also does special events including afternoon tea, evening fine dining and a myriad of other special dates that all sound like great fun – hopefully we will try one of those the next time we are in the area.

It turned out to be a brilliant day out and a lasting memory of our visit to the area.

Where Next?

This has been one of our favourite house sits to date. East Grinstead was a pleasant surprise with so many lovely places to visit on the doorstep.

However, all good things must come to an end and, as if in the snap of our fingers another month has passed by. Once again we are packing our suitcases and getting ready to say goodbye to Beau and Ashurst Wood.

During this month we have been really surprised about the quantity of enquiries and confirmed bookings that we have been getting for the months ahead.

Now that travel restrictions have been lifted it seems as if everyone wants to take a holiday and so house sitters are suddenly in great demand!

From starting the year with an empty 2022 calendar we now have only four available nights from now until November! – It really is a great position to be in and we are already looking forward to visiting new places and meeting new people and their pets over the next few months.

But for now we need to head to the train station.

Next stop – Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire