Cotchford Farm — where Brian Jones drowned

Cotchford Farm near Hartfield in East Sussex was owned by A.A. Milne, who wrote Winnie the Pooh there in the 1920s, and purchased by Brian Jones in November 1968 — shortly after he had been effectively pushed out of the Rolling Stones he had founded and named. Jones had been struggling with serious drug and alcohol dependency for years, his creative contribution to the band diminishing as his personal deterioration accelerated. He was officially fired from the Stones on June 8, 1969, replaced by Mick Taylor, on the grounds that the band could no longer insure tours with him on them.

Less than a month later, in the early hours of July 3, 1969, Jones was found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool at Cotchford Farm. He was twenty-seven years old. The official verdict was accidental drowning while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The circumstances have been disputed ever since: several people present that night gave inconsistent accounts, a building contractor named Frank Thorogood was present and has been accused by various parties of having played a more active role, and the case has generated decades of speculation without resolution.

Two days after Jones's death, the Rolling Stones played a free concert in Hyde Park — already planned as Taylor's debut performance — and Mick Jagger read a passage from Shelley's Adonais in Jones's memory. It remains one of the more surreal moments in rock history: a band performing in a field for 250,000 people two days after the death of the man who had started it. The farm at Hartfield is a private residence. Jones is buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin in Cheltenham, his hometown.