Ashdown Forest and its environs have been the inspiration for writers as diverse as Conan Doyle, A.A.Milne, Vita Sackville-West and the prolific hymn-writer John Mason Neale.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lived from 1907 until his death in 1930, at Windlesham Manor (now a nursing home) in Crowborough and was a frequent visitor to Groombridge Place, where he used to take part in séances, which were popular at the time. Recognisable local features appear in at least two of his Sherlock Holmes stories:

Groombridge Place itself was named Birlstone Manor in the book "The Valley of Fear" and described as presenting ‘one of the finest surviving examples of the moated Jacobean residence’. One particular corner of the garden is still clearly identifiable as the spot where Dr Watson overheard a conversation of great significance to the case.

In the story "Black Peter" Holmes is told that rooms have been reserved for him at the Brambletye Hotel, which is in Forest Row. Needless to say, the Brambletye Hotel now has its Black Peter’s Bar. In the same story the house called Woodman’s Lee, central to the plot, is thought to have been located in the village of Coleman’s Hatch.

It has also been suggested that Conan Doyle used Ashdown Forest as his inspiration for the Dartmoor landscape in "The Hound of the Baskervilles" but no proof exists for this theory.

Alan Alexander Milne, better known simply as A.A.Milne, author of the much loved stories about "Winnie-the-Pooh" and his friends, lived on the very edge of Ashdown Forest. Most of Pooh’s adventures took place in the area around Gill’s Lap, right in the heart of the Forest. Here are the six pine trees, the sandy place where Roo played and, nearby, the Enchanted Place, where there is now a memorial to A.A. Milne (whose home was in Hartfield, near Pooh Sticks Bridge) and the artist who illustrated the books, E.H.Shepard.

Vita Sackville-West, the poet, writer and gardener, although not an Ashdown Forest resident, was familiar with the area and inspired to write her novella "The Heir" after visiting Groombridge Place with a prospective buyer when the house was up for sale in 1919. She named the house and its gardens Blackboys and its very substance, most beautifully described, is central to the story. (Incidentally, her ancestors had once owned Groombridge Place, from 1604-1618, before the rebuilding in 1662.)

The Rev. Dr John Mason Neale, although perhaps not such a familiar name, was responsible for at least two of the best loved hymns in the English language. He was for twenty years the warden of Sackville College almshouses in East Grinstead and during his time there wrote, among many other hymns and carols, "Good King Wenceslas" and "Jerusalem the Golden". He also founded the first Anglican sisterhood, the Order of St Margaret.