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Great drives: Caterham Seven Sprint through the world of Winnie the Pooh
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The quotation from Winnie the Pooh chalked on a blackboard next to the great barn door of the visitors’ centre in Ashdown Forest, East Sussex, is one of my favourites: “ ‘What day is it?’ asked Pooh. ‘It’s today,’ squeaked Piglet. ‘My favourite day,’ said Pooh.”
The setting for A A Milne’s glorious childhood tales, Ashdown Forest is 10 square miles of woods and gorse-covered heathland that spreads south of East Grinstead and Tunbridge Wells. Due to its provenance as a medieval hunting forest, the heathland is dotted with wooded clumps, artificial warrens for farming rabbits, and ringed with old villages whose names include the word “Hatch”, which originally denoted a gateway to the enclosed forest.
The area also forms the highest ridge of the High Weald, so visitors are rewarded simultaneously with a rare habitat for walking along with fantastic views.
![Ashdown Forest](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/images/2017/04/28/TELEMMGLPICT000127052916_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqeK8ehqBZJSTiVTgumtathbH8AD1LYTdJsoz8pklmEgw.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Ashdown Forest remains very much the preserve of Winnie the Pooh, however, and the only car for meandering around this stunning, gorse and heather-covered heathland is a Caterham Seven, redolent of the Twenties, when A A Milne wrote his stories, and British boyhood tales of derring-do.
With its burbling engine, open-wheeled, open-topped, fresh-faced motoring spirit, and short-shifting five-speed gearbox, a Caterham smacks of jam sandwiches, marble cake, village fetes, day trips…
But then an extra-special opportunity presented itself: a weekend with a Caterham Seven Sprint, a car dripping with Sixties retro styling. Only 60 will be built, and all are pre-sold, despite each costing almost £30,000, which is £10,000 more than you’d expect to pay for an entry-level Caterham.
For the extra cash, you get a lustrous slice of retromobilia: flared front wings covering the cream 14in wheels, a period wooden steering wheel and twin rear lights, spare wheel mounted at the rear, cream piping along the windscreen and side screens, satin silver filler cap and vibrant red leather interior. Our car was painted in Camberwick Green, a pale period hue that offset that bright red interior perfectly.
![Caterham Seven Sprint / Erin Baker](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/images/2017/04/28/TELEMMGLPICT000126407284_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqP4pV-m6laGcMQMbuKYgJGRQ6uD2cVhFSMVWodf3KFNg.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Starting in Tunbridge Wells, with its handsome regency architecture, smart shops, cool cafés and green open spaces, we drove west, to my childhood village of Speldhurst, a traditional triumvirate of village school, church and pub perched on a hill. Nothing has changed in 30 years, it appears.
The B2110 takes you south, down a steep lane, into Groombridge, another pretty village, and from there it’s a 10-minute drive along the picturesque B2188 to the north edge of Ashdown Forest. Enter the heathland at Friar’s Gate, and to your right is Five Hundred Acre Wood, about which the real Christopher Robin wrote: “It is a real forest with giant beech trees, all dark and mysterious.” Pooh knew it as the Hundred Acre Wood, where Owl lives, of course.
A couple of good walks criss-cross the wood, but drive on, climbing to the high point of the King’s Standing car park, a popular and convenient (not least because it has an ice-cream van) place for dog walkers, picnickers and those who simply want to sit in their car and admire the views.
Which is an easy pastime in a Caterham Seven, with the vinyl roof tucked in the tiny boot, and the almost lateral posture forced upon you by the tiny, low layout of the car: gazing at the blue sky has never been easier.
![Caterham Seven Sprint 2017](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/images/2017/04/28/TELEMMGLPICT000126407181_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqWZZ9520Qrn8RyVs0byqFfxGByaeD6X80N28ho092CK4.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Two minutes down the road from King’s Standing is a lane to your right, which starts with a cattle grid. Take it for two miles of perfect motoring: sheep-nibbled grass verges line the narrow track, which dips and swerves around trees and over hills. Bright yellow flowers line the route; watch out for deer, rabbits and, of course, Eeyore (sorry, I’ll stop shortly; can you tell I’ve got young children?).
Half way along lies a car park on your left: a short walk downhill will bring you to the airman’s grave, a memorial to the crew of a Second World War bomber that crashed there in 1941 on its return from an aborted mission. Turn right at the bottom, on to the A22 which runs all the way from the M25 down to Eastbourne, and head north, past a llama park, turning right at Wych Cross to cut back across the north edge of Ashdown Forest, past the visitors’ centre, and up to a sweet little triangular patch of grass at Coleman’s Hatch, where forest pony trekkers hitch their horses for lunch at the cosy pub.
I was in search of A-list celebrities, however, so pressed on towards Hartfield, A A Milne’s home village until his death, and the Gallipot pub, which can claim: a) its own bus stop right outside (result) and b) Dame Judi Dench as not only a regular but also the official opener of said bus stop recently. This, friends, is a win-win. Added to which, the pub does excellent food, which I shouldn’t have told you about because it’s already too popular for my liking.
![Caterham Seven Sprint](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/images/2017/04/28/TELEMMGLPICT000126407199_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqoNNSexKcI53-HHJW8z5oHN2zu8eE3xlap_UxrZYPcsw.jpeg?imwidth=350)
After Catalan seafood stew and coq au vin, my mother and I winched ourselves back into the Caterham and trundled off. Funny how, one up, on an empty stomach, 80bhp from three cylinders is just fine in a light little car for some high jinks, but two people up, and two courses down, it all seems a bit more of an effort.
I used to race a Caterham Roadsport 125 which, as the name suggests, has 125bhp – better if there are regularly two of you in the Seven… From Hartfield you can either cut back up to the A264 which links East Grinstead and Tunbridge Wells and is a swift route to the M25, where, in a Caterham, you sit at 70mph staring at the dirty underbellies of lorries.
Or, as I did, wend your way back to Tunbridge Wells past the Broadwater Warren RSPB reserve, a lovely dappled lane marked by dense clouds of fir trees and a carpet of brown needles on each side, and the High Rocks on the outskirts of town, which provide proper climbing for those more adventurous and less scared of heights than me.
Three days after the Caterham has gone, I miss it badly. Like a motorbike, horse or bicycle, you wear a Caterham, become comfortable with its noise and quirks and certain physical challenges. You get used to sliding in and out of it, and feeling a little chilly around the ears. You become sympathetic to the gear changes and the suspension set-up. The Sprint has a different character again, with covered wheels framing a wholly new view of the road ahead. It’s a gorgeous, gorgeous British product full of verve and imagination and character.
As Winnie the Pooh said, “As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was going to happen.”
THE FACTS
Caterham Seven Sprint
- Price: £27,995
- Engine: 660cc turbo petrol
- Power: 80bhp
- Top speed: 100mph
- Acceleration: 0-62mph in 6.5sec
- Fuel economy: 57.6mpg (EU Combined)
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