Chris Birghton
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Posts posted by Chris Birghton
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23 minutes ago, SteveAJones said:
So, to be certain for historical accuracy, based upon your visit/observations, which side of the cross is facing the camera in the film The Song Remains the Same? It seems to be the back, with a lighting stand placed in that open area near the tree line.
Quite close to where I was standing in that photo but lower down so the cross looks alot larger! The light must have been just infront of those trees in the background. John Paul Jones is moving toward the church along the path . It is a very clever use of camera position to turn what is a very ordinary church yard into something visually stunning.
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Well, you were 100% right about which grave it was. There is no doubt given the location of the other Graves in the shot that this was where that scene was shot. One of the great thing about locations like this Church is they are timeless and have not changed a bit in the 40+ years since these scenes were filmed.
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Here is the grave today
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Finally the iconic scene where John Paul Jones Passes the Celtic Cross Grave Stone
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And some shots of the stained Glass Window from the inside
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Here is the scene today of this shot
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Finally I visited St Michael and All Angels Church in Withyham Sussex. This is the location of the graveyard scene.
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And the field the horses run along:
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Here are some shots from the inside, including the view from the window that has the light shining out of it in the video
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The team looking after the windmill very kindly let me take a look around and this is what it looks like today:
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Took a trip today to the locations used in the John Paul Jones Fantasy scene from the Song Remains the Same. First is the Windmill that John Paul Jones rides past in the night scene. This is the Nutley Windmill in the Ashdown Forest. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutley_Windmill). The windmill dates back to the 1500s
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21 hours ago, SteveAJones said:
Agreed! In the film, the horse riders move past the camera as shown from this perspective.
Interesting thing is there is no reference to this anywhere online. I doubt even the owners of the windmill are aware of it, probably one of those things that has been lost in time. I will take a trip up the road tomorrow and get some shots of the church and windmill, it is a only 25 minute up the road.
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This is pretty close by:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutley_Windmill
This is almost certainly the windmill from the film given that it is the only windmill in the area and has an unusual shape and window position which matches that in the Song Remains the Same. Ill visit that as well
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52 minutes ago, SteveAJones said:
Perfect. It was JPJ himself, through Sam, who confirmed the film location for me, so we know he remembers it quite well. he didn't mention the cross is a Baldwin plot though. That is something I learned through further research after he confirmed the location.
It will be very interesting to see I will try to get the pictures of the church that are used in the Song Remains the Same and some of the inside also. No Quarter is probably my favourite Led Zeppelin song and John Paul Jones probably had a big input into it. It is very close to JPJ's house at the time. Was John Paul Jones' family from Sussex? There is also a black windmill in the Film, do you know where that might be?
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On 12/31/2019 at 4:42 PM, SteveAJones said:
Excellent. The first two that come immediately to mind are The Straw Hat in Rickmansworth and St. Michael and All Angels Church in Withyham. The Straw Hat was JPJ's personal residence in the early 1970s, and that church is where his fantasy sequence was filmed for The Song Remains The Same. I've been researching that location for awhile, and I have found the large cross he passes on horseback at night is a Baldwin burial plot. Unsure if they are directly related to him or not but it would seem it was not merely coincidental. I meant to go there during my last visit to the UK in 2018 but time did not permit.
Withyham is only about 25 minutes away so I might try and visit in the next week or so.
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10 hours ago, SteveAJones said:
Chris Birghton,
I've been seeking to commission or underwrite photography field trips to a few other Led Zeppelin related sites within two to three hours of Plumpton. You may be the right man for the job. If you're interested, please send me your email address via private message and we can discuss further.
I am not a professional photographer but I would be happy to go along to a couple of sites to take some more pictures and post them on the forum. I dont think I have to be paid to do it since that would complicate my tax position
Where abouts did you have in mind?
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Here are a couple of final pictures. The first is of the picture dating from 1979 of the regulars of the Half Moon Pub (Including Jimmy Page) that hangs on the wall in the Half Moon next to the bar (I asked permission to take the photo
). And the field at the back of the Half Moon where the concert with Jimmy Page and Ronnie Woods took place. Any Led Zeppelin fans should definitely visit the Half Moon Pub if they get the chance since this 200 year old establishment is probably very much the same as it was when it was Mr Page's local in the Glory Days of Led Zeppelin.
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19 hours ago, PeaceFrogYum said:
Thanks for all these pics, Plumpton Place is truly a beautiful place. Personally, I would rather have and live at Plumpton Place then at Tower House but to each their own. At least at Plumpton there is no risk or fear of a neighbor's renovations causing damage to your home.
Give me land lots of land...don't let Robbie Williams fuck-up my crib...
It is an exceptionally lovely property but it is a bit out of the way and probably has very high maintenance (grade listed building, lakes getting silted up, risk of flooding, a large number of additional properties to maintain etc). I would also say there is an issue of security, it is pretty isolated and basically there is nothing stopping people just walking onto the property (and I would not be at all surprised if this had not happened more than once). Properties like Horselunges Manor are walled off and do not have the same issues. If I won the lottery and could afford it I would think twice about living there because of the privacy/security issues. The current owner has tried to improve the privacy by growing a hedge around the garden and putting restrictions on the use of the footpath for socializing by students from the college next door. The ideal situation for the owner would be to fence/wall off the main garden but it is possible this would run into planning restriction problems because of the historic nature of the property.
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And the footpath that leads to the Half Moon Pub across the field that is part of the Plumpton Place estate. I would imagine this is the route Jimmy Page took when he went for a Pint at his Local in the 70s
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Here are a few more shots of what you can see as a member of the general public of Plumpton Place:
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Went out for a short walk earlier and took a few pics of what you might be able to see of Plumpton Place from the footpaths. The best views are from the footpath that starts next to the gate at the front. The second footpath starts at the back from a door in the fence and leads to the back of the garden - where there is a bridge that crosses the river that runs from the lakes that surround the house. One of the unique features of this property is it is surrounded by the sound of running water from the waterfalls and riverlets that run from the lakes, this sound of nature and water is obviously something that Jimmy Page liked.
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"Interesting. I wouldn't want quad bikes while in residence as it would disturb the tranquility. If they were only used while he was there then they may have been a personal security detail as opposed to something used to protect the property itself."
Thanks for posting those pictures. I think they were probably his personal security, on a number of occasions when I walked along the footpath that essentially runs along the back of the garden of Plumpton Place in the summer someone seemed to come along on a Quad Bike. There is nothing more than a small split rail fence separating the footpath from the gardens there and you can pretty much see the garden, lake and house.
The fact that you can simply walk into the gardens from the footpath is probably why Jimmy Page used to find fans walking round his Garden. Given it is a Grade Listed Property there might be some planning permission reason why the bottom of the Gardens of the property cannot just be walled off from the footpath
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13 hours ago, SteveAJones said:
You are absolutely correct. Jimmy's local pub in Plumpton, The Half Moon, is just a short walk from Plumpton Place through an open field. I last visited Plumpton Place in 1998, and had a congenial chat with, if memory serves correct, a new owner who had recently moved in. I don't remember if he was an American billionaire, but I do recall he commented he had found one of Jimmy's check books while moving in.
I believe that Plumpton Place is currently owned by the Estate of the American Multi Billionaire Tom Perkins (former husband of the Author Danielle Steel). He died in 2016 but I do not believe it has been sold since. From what I understand he liked to visit there in the Summer Months, it can be a bit bleak in the winter. As with most of the super rich he was probably very concerned about security and I often saw people patrolling about the grounds on quad bikes when I assume he was in residence.
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18 hours ago, SteveAJones said:
It was very thoughtful of you to return to pay your respects to Peter. I really appreciate it, and many thanks for sharing your photograph.
I would not have found it without your help. For those who might also want to visit the Resting Place of Peter Grant and pay their respects to this Legend of the Music industry, here is a link to the location on Google Maps:
It is a small grave stone next to the hedge in the row of graves at the center of that map zoom (second row back). If people are visiting Plumpton Place and the Half Moon Pub, which I am sure a number of Led Zeppelin Fans do over time, this location is only 30 minutes drive away and is right next to Horse Lunges Manor which you can walk right up to via a public footpath that is accessed from a field to the south.
I might do a site report on Plumpton Place and what you can see there as a member of the General Public. I live locally and I often walk in the secluded woods backing onto Plumpton Place which I am sure Jimmy Page used to walk through frequently when he lived there in the 70s. There is a public footpath which goes along the back of the grounds of Plumpton Place (which I dont think the current owner - an american billionaire - is entirely pleased about since he has planted a series of shrubs there to obscure the view of his property) where you can see the house and the locations shown in the Song Remains the Same.
John Paul Jones Song Remains the Same - Filming Locations in 2020
in Led Zeppelin Master Forum
Posted · Edited by Chris Birghton
That is great detective work. They probably would have never imagined their grave would be immortalized in a famous rock film years later