Brian Jones Death — Cotchford Farm, Hartfield, East Sussex

Brian Jones, the founder and original leader of the Rolling Stones, drowned in the swimming pool of his home at Cotchford Farm in Hartfield, East Sussex, on the night of July 2-3, 1969. He was 27 years old. The coroner's verdict was 'death by misadventure' — his liver and heart were found to be enlarged from drug and alcohol abuse. The circumstances of his death have been the subject of persistent speculation and multiple investigations, with some accounts suggesting foul play by builders who were working on the property at the time.

Cotchford Farm had previously been the home of A.A. Milne, author of Winnie-the-Pooh, and the surrounding Ashdown Forest was the inspiration for the Hundred Acre Wood. Jones had purchased the property after being forced out of the Rolling Stones in June 1969 — the band he had founded in 1962, named (after a Muddy Waters song), and led through their early years. His departure was driven by drug problems, unreliability, and deteriorating relationships with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. He was replaced by Mick Taylor just weeks before his death.

Cotchford Farm is a private residence and not open to the public. Brian Jones is buried at Cheltenham Cemetery in Gloucestershire, his hometown. His grave has become a pilgrimage site. Jones's death — coming just two days before the Rolling Stones' free concert in Hyde Park, which Jagger dedicated to his memory — marked the end of the 1960s in a way that still resonates.