Carole Millea [then, Carole Vines] grew up in Byfleet and was a regular visitor to Kenwood as a teenager in the mid-1960s. A huge Lennon fan, Mrs Millea and friends would cycle through the woods and golf course on long summer days in a bid to meet the superstar songwriter. At the time, the large wooden double gates to Kenwood were generally left open, meaning easy access for this particular eager young fan group. 

 “John was just a really nice guy and very laid back about us being there,” said Mrs Millea, now 64, a grandmother living in Emsworth in Hampshire. “They were lovely times, John was my favourite person in the world - he had a depth to him, a real man of the people.” 

 Mrs Millea would play on a large model boot from the Help! movie that Lennon had in the garden, and feed his dog - a golden retriever. One occasion stands out for Mrs Millea - the day of the film premiere of A Hard Day’s Night in July 1964. 

 “My biggest day; I was at the house and went up to the kitchen window, casually sitting there eating a late morning fry up were all The Beatles,” she recalled. “So I asked John: ‘Can I have your autograph’, and offered him my Mandy comic. "John wiped his mouth, got a fountain pen and passed the magazine around, they all signed it. John had no big ideas about himself. 

 “I went on to think Mandy was childish and unbelievably threw my signed copy away, although I managed to go on and get more autographs from John and Ringo." 

 Lennon’s housekeeper was the main security at Kenwood, and while largely accommodating to the young fans, on occasion, she would take issue. “One day we saw Paul McCartney go into Kenwood with [then girlfriend] Jane Asher - at the time we all thought she wasn’t right for him,” Mrs Millea said. “The housekeeper chased us out, Paul wasn’t half as approachable as John.” 

 Mrs Millea would often see Lennon, his former wife Cynthia and their son Julian in Weybridge, usually in the corner shop that was once by the railway station. When Lennon split from Cynthia in 1968, he decided to sell Kenwood, receiving £40,000 for the 12,000sq/ft house and 1.5-acre plot, double his 1964 £20,000 purchase price. 

 "It was the worst thing when he went, really sad from my point of view,” Mrs Millea said. “I’ll aways remember Kenwood, John’s Union Jack Mini, the swimming pool in the garden, lovely old-fashioned kitchen and big sitting room with the white piano. [...] It was a lovely area and back then you were able to peacefully walk around St George’s Hill, with the huge detached houses,” she said. “It was great, a good time to grow up.” 

 Story: Tom Smurthwaite, Get Surry (http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/) 10th August 2016. 

Promo photo of George from November, 1962. I love his Chelsea Boots!