H. E. Bates Lydia". His most popular creation was the Larkin family in "The Darling Buds of May". Pop Larkin and his family were inspired by a colourful character seen in a local shop in Kent by Bates and his family when on holiday. The man (probably Wiltshire trader William Dell, also on holiday) turned up to the shop with a huge wad of rubber-banded bank notes and proceeded to spoil his trailer load of children with Easter eggs and ice creams. The television adaptation, produced after his death by his son Richard and based on these stories, was a tremendous success. It
The Darling Buds of May (TV series) weeks to film, followed by two months in post production. Much of the series was filmed in and around the village of Pluckley in Kent; Executive Producer Richard Bates lived just a few miles away. The location for "Home Farm", the Larkin residence, was Buss Farm a few miles south of Pluckley, owned by the Holmes family. All four main buildings of the Grade II listed farm were utilised, the farmhouse itself, a square oast house (depicted in the title sequence), a Tudor barn and cart lodge. After being put up for sale by the family in 2012, it was