A SCIENTIST has designed a formula to help people find the perfect Poohstick - and one of the best places to play the game is in the Lake District.

The research, commissioned to celebrate the release of ‘The Poohsticks Handbook: A Poohstickopedia’ (Egmont Publishing), reveals the secrets to finding the ‘perfect Poohstick’ according to a leading scientist and names the best places in the country to play the traditional family game - with Packhorse Bridge, Watendlat, near Keswick, among the top ten.

Egmont Publishing has joined forces with Dr Rhys Morgan (Royal Academy of Engineering) to equip the 39% of us who already take serious time sourcing the perfect Poohstick with the necessary formula to ensure we pick the speediest stick and float us to victory.

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Dr Morgan, Director of Engineering and Education at the Royal Academy of Engineering as well as a dad of two and avid Poohsticks player himself, has used his expertise to create a formula for the perfect Poohstick. 

According to Dr Morgan, the main variables that need to be considered when designing the perfect Poohstick include: cross sectional area, density/buoyancy, and the ‘drag coefficient’.

The perfect Poohstick is tubby and long, fairly heavy (but not so heavy it will sink to the bottom of the river), with quite a lot of bark to catch the flow of the river like paddles

Top 12 Poohsticks-Perfect Bridges, as recommended by VisitEngland are: 

1.       Sheepwash Bridge, Ashford in the Water, Derbyshire

2.       Morden Hall Park, London

3.       Heale Gardens, Salisbury, Wiltshire

4.       Packhorse Bridge, Watendlath, Cumbria

5.       Mottisfont, Romsey, Hampshire

6.       Little Wittenham Bridge, Abingdon, Oxfordshire

7.       Mathematical Bridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire

8.       New Lower Bridge, Boscastle, Cornwall

9.       Bridge over Bourne Eau, Bourne, Lincolnshire

10.   Cantlop Bridge, Shrewsbury, Shropshire

11.   Essex Bridge, Shugborough, Staffordshire

12.   Hutton-le-Hole, Ryedale, North Yorkshire

Poohsticks first featured in The House at Pooh Corner, published in 1928, and has remained one of the nation’s favourite traditional games alongside Hide and Seek (52%) and It (33%).