A small Sussex town links the tragedy of Brian Jones to the joy of Winnie the Pooh
Sometimes worlds collide in completely unexpected way. Different things exist in different realms in our brain, separated and blocked off by mostly impenetrable walls that keep different chapters of our lives, or moments in culture split. For example, the innocent views of childhood are kept apart from hedonism and debauchery. For a more specific example, it feels like Winnie The Pooh should be kept far away from the death of a rockstar.
This is one of those fever dream facts that brings together worlds so vastly different that it feels wild. It feels like entering the back rooms of life and realising that actually, there are corridors connecting everything and strange little strings tying two totally random realms together.
One end of the string was bound around visions of youth. “Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood / Where Christopher Robin play / You’ll find the enchanted neighbourhood / Of Christopher’s childhood days,” the theme tune rang from the 1977 film adaptation of the iconic character, a tune that was whistled by little ones everywhere, but even long before that, the beloved bear, Winnie the Pooh, was already world-famous.
After first appearing in 1925, the character created by AA Milne spread fast as kids were comforted and enamoured by the little adventures of the silly old bear and his pack of woodland friends. From bothering bees to hunting out honey, attending birthday parties and dealing with rainy days, Pooh Bear feels like the ultimate archetype of a children’s character, teaching subtle life lessons in his goings-ons but mostly just embodying, and bringing to life, the comforting companion most kids have.
Specifically, though, Winnie the Pooh was the actual companion of the real-life Christopher Robin, and initially, Milne’s stories were nothing but personalised bedtime tales for his own kid, inspired by the teddies he had sat at the end of his bed.
As for the Hundred Acre Woods, that was the name given to the land that their house, Cotchford Farm, sat on the border of. In the real world, it’s called Ashdown Forest. All the features of the fictional woods are there, from the bridge where they play Pooh Sticks, to the thick-trunked tree that Pooh Bear calls his ‘Thotful Spot’, where he goes to do his thinking. Until 1968, it was owned by Milne’s family, passed down from father to son, but then in 1968, a new owner got the keys: Brian Jones.
Yes, Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones, one of music’s most infamous hedonists, bought the house that once homed Winnie the Pooh, moving into the Hundred Acre Woods right as his addictions and bad behaviours were hitting an absolute fever pitch, and his career was collapsing.
Perhaps it was purposeful; as he was growing more estranged from his bandmates and worsening with his substance abuse, maybe he actively sought out a connection to childhood. Maybe he was yearning for the innocence he couldn’t seem to find in his life as it darkened, or maybe, he just wanted a nice house, out of the city, with a swimming pool in the garden.
Infamously, though, that swimming pool would become his grave. Jones didn’t just live in Winnie the Pooh’s house, he died there as he joined the ’27 Club’ on July 3rd, 1969, bringing rock and roll tragedy to the home of childhood sweetness.
