WALK down Farnham Road, past the village green, the Spar and The Mill (cask ales and “stunning riverside garden”), turn right onto Fulbrook Lane and eventually you’ll arrive at a handsome red-stone building partly obscured from the road behind a high wooden fence. Today, it is one of many similarly desirable period residences, tucked away in the heart of deep Surrey. But during the late ’60s and early ’70s, Brookfield House was a Home Counties outpost of Swinging London. In 1968, Ringo Starr bought Brookfield from Peter Sellers – it was here that The Beatles gathered to persuade George Harrison to rejoin the band after he walked out of the Let It Be Twickenham Studios sessions in January 1969.
The following year, meanwhile, Brookfield passed into the hands of another celebrated owner. “I stayed in England after CSNY’s first Albert Hall concert in January 1970,” says Stephen Stills. “I fell in love with the place, I fell in love with the culture. I fell in love with my mates. Everyone was very friendly. I told the guys, ‘I’m not going back to California with you.’ It was invigorating, like plugging into a 220-volt socket. I ended up at Ringo’s house – he was my first friend in England. He was just fabulous to be with. We sat and played and noodled about. Then Maureen said, ‘We’re getting rid of the house in Surrey. Would you like it?’ We drove down the next morning. I walked in and said, ‘Yes, I’ll have it.’”
Aside from the stables, pond and ornamental gardens, what else did this oak-beamed 16th-century mansion have to offer Stephen Stills? A team player in Buffalo Springfield and CSN/Y, a multi-instrumentalist and arranger, with a Grammy in his back pocket for Crosby, Stills & Nash and further success imminent with Déjà Vu, there wasn’t much Stills couldn’t do in 1970.
“Stephen played almost every single instrument on our first record,” Graham Nash tells . “Of course, Crosby and I played rhythm guitar on ‘Long Time Gone’, ‘Guinnevere’, ‘Lady Of The Island’ and ‘Marrakesh Express’. But Stephen played lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, B3, piano, percussion…. My point is, Stephen Stills is a brilliant record maker.”
