10 places that have influenced classic stories for children

The author JM Barrie lived close to Kensington Park. It was in the park that he began a friendship with the Llewelyn Davies family. The family's children and the park inspired Barrie to create the adventures and child characters that appear in his enchanting tales that feature his magical, flying boy, Peter Pan. When their parents died at a young age, Barrie adopted the five Davies boys.

Charles Lutwidge Dodgeson, aka Lewis Carroll, lectured at Christ Church. Alice, the daughter of the College's Dean, and Christ Church's historic halls and gardens inspired Carroll's stories of the young heroine in 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking Glass'. 

The shop at 83 St Aldate's Street in Oxford was the inspiration behind the Old Sheep Shop in 'Through the Looking Glass', the 1871 sequel to Lewis Carroll's 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'. Alice Liddell, daughter of the Dean of Christ Church College, and inspiration for Carroll's Alice, would buy sweets here.

Situated on the banks of the River Thames, the Tudor-style Hardwick House is one of several houses that are said to have inspired EH Shepard's vision of Toad Hall, illustrated in Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's novel, 'The Wind in the Willows'. He also illustrated editions of other classic children's stories, including 'Winnie-the-Pooh', 'The Secret Garden' and 'Tom Brown's School Days'.

For hundreds of years, England's Lake District has been an inspiration for poets, artists and writers, including Arthur Ransome, author of the children's classic 'Swallows and Amazons'. Ransome spent childhood holidays here and would return in adulthood when finances allowed. A summer at Coniston Water in 1928 proved the inspiration for his most famous children's story about holiday adventures and Lakeland life. 

During her lifetime, Enid Blyton, produced over 600 books. Her Famous Five series resulted in twenty-one titles, the first of which, 'Five on a Treasure Island' was published in 1942. Blyton often holidayed in the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset and it is said that Corfe Castle is the inspiration for Kirrin Castle that features in the Famous Five stories.

Charles Kingsley's 'The Water Babies' is a moral fairy-tale of a young chimney sweep who appears to drown in a steam after being chased out of a country house, accused of being a thief. Kingsley was Rector to Sir John Cope, who lived at Bramshill House. It is thought that Bramshill was the inspiration for Hartover Place, the house from which Tom, the unfortunate sweep, is chased.

The writer Frances Hodgson Burnett lived at Great Maytham between 1898 and 1909. It is said that the rose garden here was an inspiration behind her 1911 book 'The Secret Garden'. It tells of the rediscovery of a neglected rose garden at Misselthwaite Manor, and the transformation of the lives of the children who live there. 

Thomas Hughes was sent to Rugby School in 1834. His experiences there inspired his story about life in an English public school, 'Tom Brown's School Days', which was published in 1857. In under five years it had sold 28,000 copies and by 1892 had gone through fifty-three editions.

Roald Dahl is probably the nation's favourite writer of children's books. 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', first published in 1964, is one of his enduring classics. Inspiration for the story came early to Dahl. While a pupil at Repton School, Dahl and his classmates taste-tested Cadbury's latest chocolate inventions. It is little wonder that the adventures of Charlie Bucket would emerge to delight countless children.