The Beatles in Knole Park 1967
Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane
I was on a weeks holiday. It was a cold early February day in 1967 and I hadn’t much better to do than to walk from my Home up to Sevenoaks High Street and frequent the then Coffee Bar ‘La Cabana’
La Cabana was the meeting place for all us late teen types; the place seated about 30, but you usually had about 50 in there. I’m sure the Owner never worried about the safety issue of numbers, probably because he couldn’t see more than half way down the Cafe for Smoke!!
As soon as I walked in I was asked if I’d heard the news that The Beatles had been filming just a stones throw away in Knole Park. I hadn’t and was most disappointed to learn they had done their business and left.
Some lucky people got to hear about it early enough to wander up and see them, there are stories to this day by local folk who got an autograph or had some story to tell. One young man even got a Bottle of Champagne from the Set and with the exception of Ringo, got them to sign it – now a valuable little piece!
They were there to make a Promotional Film for their latest ‘double A sided’ release of Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane now regarded as being the first Pop Video.
Both ‘stories’ were filmed around the Owl House just at the back of Knole House tucked between two Holes of the demanding Golf Course.
For Penny Lane they rode horses through the derelict archway at the rear of Owl House and around he corner towards the Hole 7 Fairway.
After that, the video shows them having some sort of Picnic next to the Pond beside the short Par 3 just a few yards further behind the House.
The Archway and the corner wall are more or less the same now as they were then, the Pond is now very overgrown and it’s difficult to get to the exact spot where they sat etc.
You will see from the photographs right and above that many trees are no longer there being torn down during the Great Storm of 1987 which ripped apart much fine woodland accross the Weald of Kent.
The finished film was blended in with scenes filmed in their native Liverpool.
The tree featured in Strawberry Fields forever (what is the story exactly??) appears to be no longer there.
Apparently it was virtually on the Tee of Hole 7 and being in very open land, one assumes that was lost in the Storm.
There are other very similar shaped trees around but none seem to have exactly the same features all be it that 43 years have passed since.
I am blessed in having a Son who is a big fan of the Beatles plus most music of that time, to take him along was a real experience for him – and a treat for me as Knole Park brings back many happy memories of youth when time and history were changing at such a fast rate.
One final little story is that whilst The Beatles were there, John Lennon went into a local Antique Shop, was attracted to and purchased an old Circus Poster which had as it’s main title ‘being for the benefit of Mr.Kite’ and we all know where that went to!
The song is written entirely around the poster including names of the acts etc. The only thing not on the poster is the name of the Horse, which Lennon called Henry.
Interesting article from down memory lane.
In fact the tree that was featured in the Strwberry Fields video covered in bits of broken piano that the beatles walked around and around is still there, it’s one of the ones closest to the front entrnce of Knole House.
I know because I spent the afternoon skipping off from Sevenoaks School to watch them film.
Very interesting article – especially to a Beatles nut like me. But…this is driving me mad ! I am very keen to know where the Beatles stayed during their short time in the Sevenoaks area and where exactly did John Lennon buy the poster ? The exact tree is also a subject of much debate….
Brilig
Hi,
Although some say they stayed in the Owl House, I think they were in the Royal Oak opposite Sevenoaks School.
Just along from there, between the Hotel and the Knole main entrance, there was an Antique Shop and as it’s recorded that he purchased the poster from a place near the Hotel, I guess that was the one. The only other one close by (John didn’t like walking much) was the Antique Shop on a corner about half way between the main gate and the start of the High Street proper.
Speculation based on the stories known, so hope that helps.
Cheers, Richard
Richard – Thanks for that info, I’ll have a look round next time I’m up that way.
Why did the Beatles actually come to knole / sevenoaks ? And did they go to places like Bromley etc ?
Thanks
Hi – Why they chose Knole Park and not some Golf Course nearer to where they were at that time, I really don’t know. I’d imagine some Production chappie said “Does anyone know a good place to film Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane”. Good question !
Hello Richard,
Just happened to read your report on the Beatles and their film set. Very interesting. It really caught my imagination.
I grew up with the Beatles and love all of their music. I now live in Germany but was born and bred in south Devon just near the place where the Beatles filmed other parts of their Magical Mystery Tour crossing the river Dart on a narrow bridge (which I keep telling my daughters and wife every time we go back to visit!). For whatever reason I just looked again at their video of SF on Youtube and wondered again where that was filmed (also seeing the ocassional driving past in the background arousing my interest). Hence found out. Now I would also like to visit the place next time I’m in England and hope I will find that tree (you say high and I say low!). If you have found it since, please give me the coordinates and I’ll locate it on Google Earth and perpare my visit. Cheers
Absolutely fascinating. The Breed bring back happy memories, I was in the Band ‘The Q5’ at that time and knew them through a mutual friend in Riverhead (lots of parties!). My younger brother Nigel ran the Oak Tap in the 90’s I think it was. With sport in mind, our family inc. myself were playing members of Sevenoaks Vine spanning 50’s through to the 80’s. I still bump into many ex Vine members in my role at Kent CCC. Again, fascinating comments and I do appreciate them. Richard
Again, many thanks. I forget from where I got my research from on Mr.Kite.
Fascinating.
BTW. My son read your comment with such interest. He really is a true fan of their’s.
Cheers, Richard
Hey Sid!
The Headmaster ( Trendy Taylor, with his intelligent and beautiful wife) handled that whole afternoon really well. Was it nearly half the school that cut games to go see them? But no reprisals the day after? (There were reprisals for the pair of us, on some other occasion . . .)
I rushed home, and drove back into Knowle Park in a Morgan 3 wheeler, with John Cooper, and a tin box that we claimed was a film cannister for the set.
Not whacky enough (too juvenile) to be included in the ‘Walrus’ track that was going on – with them clambering all over that blasted oak . . .
Sid – you seem to have edited out the personal details that prompted me to reply to this memoir : the Halfway House with its older bunch of ‘heroes’ – Bob Cherry, Mike Fields, and T.C. (Teece) and others.
And then we were the new generation – Mark and Andy Wilson, John, Pablo Hartzell, with Rick Stainton, Paul Prentice and Andrew Munro.
Now – thanks for supplying all that Cab detail! I have memory like Emmenthal – all the good stuff and lots of convenient holes.
I began to get a distaste for English society in general, and Sevenoaks life in particular, soon after leaving university. But fortunately discovered an older more civilised way of life in the west of Ireland, and now in the depths of southern France.
But Richard – well done! Your efforts with the site are informative and enriching. Bon Courage et Bon Continuation!
My late Father who passed away in 2012 was working as a photographer for the Kent Messenger and took press photos of the Beatles whilst doing the promotional video. My father left me three of the original photos that were taken there and i will treasure those for the rest of my life.
I’m sure you will at that Robert, brilliant to have them.
It’s strange, when I wrote this article I never thought how much further information would come along.
Cheers, Richard
Hi All, One further anecdote which concerns the champagne glasses that fall out of the tree near the end of the SF vid. They were “borrowed”, as she told me, from Nancy, (second name eludes me) who was the manager of the old cafe which was on the bend at Raleys Corner, LH side heading south. Was it called “The Old Coffee Shop” ? Most recently it was the Zed Music Cafe. The Beatles had tea there (upstairs) and asked to borrow the glasses for the shoot, they were never returned, but Nancy told me, years later, that she was sent a note, to say thanks and to watch the vid to see what happened to them. Thanks for the advice on the tree, I had wondered about that as we walk there occasionally. Didn’t know about Westerham and the poster either !
I saw Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane videos on American Bandstand in 1967. Now more than 51 years later those images and sounds are still for me the best videos ever made and the music the most beautiful I ever heard. I saw the videos in glorious black and white. I watch them often now on DVD and they sound even better, being included on the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 50th Anniversary album.