Knole Park, Sevenoaks: Where the Beatles Filmed Strawberry Fields Forever

The Beatles filmed the Strawberry Fields Forever promotional film in Knole Park, Sevenoaks, on 30 and 31 January 1967, around a dead oak near the Bird House. They came back on 7 February for part of the Penny Lane film. The park is open to walkers from dawn to dusk. The oak is gone, the stone arch remains, and nothing marks the shoots.

The Strawberry Fields Forever shoot

The Swedish television director Peter Goldmann made the film for Subafilms, with Tony Bramwell producing. The first session, on the evening of 30 January 1967, was shot on and around a dead oak close to the Bird House, which stands south-east of Knole House. The crew came back the next day for the daylight scenes.

The idea came from Klaus Voormann, who said the song sounded like a strange instrument, so Bramwell's team dressed the tree and an old, stripped piano with strings. In the film the Beatles pour paint over the piano. Goldmann cut it with reversed footage, jump cuts and superimposed images rather than showing the band play, and it was the first time viewers saw them with moustaches. The clip was first shown on Top of the Pops in Britain and The Ed Sullivan Show in the US, and later on The Hollywood Palace on 25 February and American Bandstand on 11 March 1967.

Penny Lane and the arch by the Bird House

The Beatles returned on 7 February 1967 to film part of the Penny Lane clip. The best-known Knole shot has the four of them riding horses through a stone archway on the south-east side of the Bird House. That arch is still standing.

What is left of the tree

The oak is not. A local Beatles walking guide identifies a stump at about 51.2652 N, 0.2118 E as the remains, lining it up with landscape features in the background of the film. That is a fan identification rather than an official one, and no plaque or sign marks either filming spot.

The circus poster from Sevenoaks

During the filming days John Lennon went into an antiques shop in Sevenoaks, run by Andrew Mair at 44a High Street, and bought an 1843 poster for Pablo Fanque's circus. It became the basis for Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! on Sgt. Pepper. The building is now used by a law firm.

Getting into the park

Knole has belonged to the National Trust since 1947. The Trust owns the house and 52 acres, and the Sackville family owns the rest of the deer park but allows public access. Walkers can enter free through several public gates from dawn to dusk; the car park is only for members and ticket holders. Sevenoaks station is about 30 minutes' walk away, uphill through the town. The deer are wild, so dogs must stay on a lead.

Knole has appeared in other films since, including two released in 2011, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. For the places the two songs are named after, see Strawberry Field and Penny Lane in Liverpool.