Cavemen, secret dens, time travel, and a world of adventures at the bottom of the garden.

It is the stuff of one of our best-loved children’s stories - but for one reader it was much closer to home than just another fantasy tale.

Stig of the Dump, the story of an eight-year-old boy who bumps into a mysterious caveman at the bottom of an old quarry, has captivated readers since it was first published 45 years ago.

But when Fred Pocknall first picked up the novel after it hit the shelves in 1963 he was transported into the story in a different way.

The 74-year-old, of Hunt Road, Northfleet, believes the novel is based on his own childhood exploits and those of his friends in the late 1930s and early 1940s when they lived in Butlers Place, now part of New Ash Green.

And he may not be far from the truth. At that time the book's author, Clive King, lived with his family in Oliver's Farm, in Butcher's Lane, the heart of Mr Pocknall and his gang's stomping ground.

Mr Pocknall believes a chalk pit at the bottom of the family's garden, where he and his friends used to play, was the inspiration for the rubbish dump where Barney found Stig.

Mr Pocknall said: "As soon as we read the book we recognised ourselves in it.

"There was a group of about five or six of us, all about nine or 10. There was a chalk hole at the bottom of King's garden and we used to play down there, build camps and catch rabbits."

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