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Ashdown Forest

Matt Baker and Charlotte Smith visit Ashdown Forest in East Sussex, the inspiration for Winnie-the-Pooh’s magical home, 100 Aker Wood, to learn more about this ancient woodland.

It’s been a century since a fictional bear called Winnie-the-Pooh made his first ever appearance in the children’s poetry book When We Were Very Young. One hundred years later, Matt Baker and Charlotte Smith have come to Ashdown Forest in East Sussex, the inspiration for Winnie-the-Pooh’s magical home, 100 Aker Wood, to learn more about this ancient woodland and its infamous honey-loving bear. After a game of Pooh sticks with Charlotte on the real-life Pooh Sticks Bridge, Matt goes on a bear hunt with Pooh fanatic and local museum curator Neil Reed to hear about the life of writer AA Milne and the forest’s magical landmarks that feature in his iconic stories.

Matt also joins a group of volunteers who are protecting the forest’s precious lowland heaths. Charlotte goes on a hunt of her own – for deer – as she teams up with High Weald’s deer management co-ordinator Sandy Williamson, who uses military grade drones to count deer populations in the forest, as part of innovative tactics to manage their numbers.

In the Cotswolds, Adam Henson is doing his bit to reverse the decline of hedgerows in the countryside, and Charlotte investigates how housebuilders in England are going to have to start improving the environment when they build new homes.

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55 minutes

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Last on

Tue 20 Feb 2024 01:05

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Matt Baker
Presenter Charlotte Smith
Presenter Adam Henson
Series Editor Mark Beech
Series Producer Gavin Ahern

Broadcasts