The Beatles filming Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane at Knole Park, Kent on the 30th - 31st January, 1967 and 7th February 1967.
“I was one of the boys who cut lessons from Sevenoaks School to chase the Beatles around Knole Park, and stole a hammer from their brightly painted piano. It was a fantastic adventure for a 13-year-old, and the most worthwhile six solaces I ever got (and there were a few) duly came from Mr Sampson, waiting with the blue paper on our return.
“Word shot round that they were coming. I remember sitting in our form room in the Cottage Block at the end of break and we decided to run past Claridge House to the Knole drive. We were just in time to see a fleet of four black Minis with blacked-out windows racing into the park. There was very little security, a bobby or two, so we scampered after them on foot to the filming area behind the east wall of Knole House garden. I remember feeling as excited as I had ever felt, worrying a little about cutting school, but then thinking this may never happen again, so had to be done – I think they smashed up the piano after the filming, so the school kids who were there swarmed over the bits to find a souvenir.”
[Trevor Nicholson, chairman of Sevenoaks Rugby Club, Sevenoaks Chronicle via Kent Live, 21st January 2017]
Pics: courtesy of Tracks Ltd. / Kent Live.
