I came across this book quite by accident.
I was researching Kit's Coty House for our history blog when I came across a passage that said Stig of the Dump was inspired by the site. Now one of my new years resolutions is to read more and I had tied this in nicely with the idea of reading some books relating to the things we post on Phantom Adventures UK. So this seemed like the first choice for the new year.
Obviously this is a children's book and as I like to buy second hand books this one has turned out to be one with the cover from the 1981 TV show, but it is an odd little thing. Quite a few books in my personal library are like this, all children's books, mostly Enid Blyton, and all from the 80s where they made TV shows. It's a point in history that I enjoy as this is something quite niche to the era and you get to see what our parents generation grew up on thanks to what their parents would have read.
I digress. Stig of the Dump by Clive King follows a young boy named Barney as he falls into the local dumping site and winds up befriending a Cave-man-esque boy called Stig. They go on to invent things to make Stig's life more comfortable out of things found in the dump as well as chasing thieves and sorting out the local bullies.
Toward the end we find out just how Kit's Coty House came to be. This book imagines that it was Stig's tribe who hauled the stones up to Bluebell Hill in a big ceremony that Barney and his sister witnessed. They then placed the capstone before the sun rose and then everything turned back to modern day aside from the fact that Stig remained too, but his tribe vanished with the time-slip.
Having briefly studied this Neolithic Burial Chamber, I've found this little story quite sweet. No one really knows how or why KCH came to be but I liked that it inspired King enough to create a slightly supernatural story around it. It is a bit of a mystical site and having a Caveman introduced into the mix is a bit odd but it was fun.
Now this book is very much of its time. It was written in 1963 when Fox hunting wasn't frowned upon and children were allowed out to explore on their own. No one cared where they dumped their rubbish and no one really cared what a child did as long as they were polite. So it is safe to say that some of the things Barney, Lou, and Stig get up to are no longer acceptable, after all, no child is welcome at 'The Hunt', but these were different times. There's a bit of a graphic scene where Stig kills a Pheasant. It wasn't particularly nice to read and you'd never catch that in a kids book nowadays, but that was normal in the 60s. You'd come home and eat Pheasant pie on a Sunday when your dad had been out on a shoot and your mother had sat in the kitchen plucking it. This was the old English way and I can respect that because I've heard stories about it and some of those things have bled into how I was brought up. On the other-hand I can see why this book is no longer widely circulated and isn't something I had read as a child. If I ever have kids I'd possibly read them this book but it would be when they were old enough to understand that it isn't like that anymore. A bit like the watershed warnings on old Disney films...
Overall I enjoyed this somewhat 'classic' children's story, it was a nice and easy read. I'm giving it a 7/10 as it was refreshing to read something older and original. There weren't any fairies or ghosts which was rife at the time. It was Cavemen and Time-Slips along with a hint of history. This ended up a bit of an educational story and I know it sounds a bit sexist but if I had a little boy I'd read this to him to get him interested in adventures and making things. Of course I'd also read this to any daughter of mine but I reckon they'd have a similar mindset as me and not be too happy at the situation regarding the animals.
I look forward to sharing my next 'classic' read with you thanks to Phantom Adventures UK!
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