Back in spring, several family visits were made to the great Knole Park where the Beatles filmed their videos for the Strawberry Fields / Penny Lane single. When on proposing a third visit in as many weekends, suspicions were well and truely roused within the family as to my motives and having been pressed on the matter (4 females vs. myself - tricky) I eventually revealed the whole interesting (vs. sad) Beatle truth in a manner initally enthusiastic but untimately faltering as the sudden realisation of the endless poses against a backdrop of (hundreds of) trees, old inconsequential arches and a strange white house became apparent.It has to be said that family trust was dented by the incident and has yet to be fully restored.
I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Four ate at a restaurant in Sevenoaks during their sojourn between video shoots and stayed at a hotel in Westerham. Was it in Sevenoaks high street where JL bought the Mr Kite poster ?
"Kids, fancy a visit to the toy shop in Sevenoaks ? Kids, where are you ?"
PS. Note the strained faces against the (one hundredth) wrong tree.
i found the tree but it's even more rotten than it was in '67..its surrounded with a fence and has blackberries over growing around it
ReplyDeleteIn my youth I knew the Sackvilles and the Wests...kind of obliquely it has to be said. More my late husband, Tony really who was in the park at Kole when the filming took place. Tony told me that when the Beatles were filming on the estate they scribbled their signatures on Jane West's ceiling and her father..who was I believe the Gamekeeper... made her scrub them off! Oh the follies of missed opportunities! I somehow think that the Sackville West"s and the Wests were related; but that's the aristocracy for you. The Sackville-Wests were and probably still are a talented and liberal bunch! Vita Sackville West's Grandmother, Pepita, was a Spanish gypsy dancer! Oh the scandal!
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