Following our recent reunion, Bill and I had been discussing whether we could remember the actual locations of the sites that we operated from at Knockholt in 1969. On the casual Sunday outings we would park on the grass verge in Brasted Lane and operate from the car, but we entered two contests from the Knockholt area, the March Open contest in 1969 and VHF Field day 1969.
Neither Bill nor myself could remember the exact location of the March Contest site but Alan G8BJG thought he could remember the VHF Field day site, just off the footpath adjacent to the Beeches.

We decided to return to Knockholt and see if we could discover the whereabouts of these two sites, armed with some old photographs taken at the time.

But first we had to have some lunch, and the Three Horseshoes at Knockholt provided some excellent refreshment and has a large garden. Suitably fed and watered we set out on our search.

Left to Right:
G8BGR, G8BIS and G8BJG at the Three Horseshoes, Knockholt.

We parked in Brasted Lane, very close to where we used to operate from. The road and the grass verge seemed to be much narrower then I remember.

The first site we looked for was the VHF Field Day one, as Alan was fairly sure where it was.
He was correct, it was just off the footpath adjacent to the Beeches.

After this early success we feared the next task would not be so easy. From the photos we could see that we pitched the tent fairly near to the edge of a field, near to some overhead powerlines. But would they still be there after 37 years?

So the expedition proved to be a total success, much to our surprise. We even mangaged to work out the vehicular access to both sites, now rather overgrown and impassible even on foot. It was a very enjoyable day, the weather couldn't have been better and to quote G8BGR: I would just like to say many thanks for your company and participation in a very enjoyable day.  Some days have to be shared with good friends to make them truly memorable, and for me, yesterday was one of those days.

Our next task is to find out exactly where 'Somewhere in Kent' actually was. I thought I knew but it appears I was very much mistaken.

I had always thought it was just off the A21 at Flimwell, near the telecomm tower at the junction with the B2079.

From the top:

Junction of A21 and B2079 looking south

This lane leads to the tower

The Telecomm site is just on the left

The tower

However, the above photos show that this is not the right place.

So, where was it? We had obviously intended to operate portable somewhere that day, as we had with us a telescopic mast and a 6 element Yagi. So it must have been somewhere roughly between Lydd and Farnborough, and on high ground and easily accessible by car.
My first thoughts were at Sevenoaks, at the top of River Hill. Bill had a look and ruled that out, unless the house in question had been demolished.

Another suggestion was the former Union Workhouse at Ticehurst, not far from the A21 at Flimwell. From the photos we decided we were looking for perhaps a derelict hospital or some sort of government establishment, and this seemed a possible candidate.
However, the whole area has been redeveloped and nothing remains of the site. Also from the photos of 'somewhere in Kent' we are looking for somewhere at the top of a hill, the water tower probably being the highest point in the area. The Ticehurst site is on the side of a hill, which would be visible behind the water tower.

At this point we gave up, and Bill contacted G8AMG, initially by Christmas card and then phone. Mike thought we had gone to the Hastingleigh area, near to the QTH of G2JF.
So I took a trip to the Wye downs on a sunny January day. Several excellent VHF portable sites were found, but nothing remotely like 'somewhere in Kent'.

G2JF operated from

this area in the sixties

At Bill's suggestion I emailed Hugh, M0WYE
(see http://www.m0wye.radiouk.com/index.html).
Hugh replied and as a result we more or less ruled out the Hastingleigh area, but he suggested perhaps it was somewhere along the downs above Maidstone or the Medway towns.
From looking at the photos, Hugh came up with the suggestion that there was a road between the track where we had parked and the house. This was something we had completely missed. We had always assumed that the place in question was way off the beaten track, but perhaps not.

By now we had ruled out just about everywhere in Kent, so I wondered if in fact we had been to East Sussex, somewhere near Hastings.
Now I had always thought that we went to North's Seat on that day, but Alan G8BJG had been there then with G8APV, and didn't remember us being there as well. I suppose that we had perhaps intended to go there but they got there first. We must have heard them operating so decided to go somewhere else.
There is a lot of high ground to the north of Hastings, so I decided to have a look. On another sunny day, this time in February I investigated along the Ridge from Oare to the A21, with no success.

I decided to have a look at the area around Fairlight near to North's Seat, and there it was!!

This is now the car park for the Fairlight Country Park. It was formally an RAF Radar Station,
see http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/f/fairlight/index.html for a very comprehensive
description of the site with many photos.

So, another success story, but this one took a little more effort and there were times when we didn't think we would find it.

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