Mr Hopkins, 60, lived at the park and his family had hired another cabin onsite for a party to celebrate his step-father's 90th birthday on November 17 last year, Hastings Coroners' Court heard this week.

In a statement read out a thte inquest, Mr Hopkins's son, Bobby Hopkins-Barry, 20, said that the family had been discussing taking his father back to his cabin at 7pm because he had had a lot to drink that day.

He said: "I took him back to his cabin and he was watching TV."

Mr Hopkins's partner Jacqueline Barry said that after the last of the 14 party-goers had left, one couple - Stuart and Wendy Robertson - returned to tell her that Mr Hopkins was lying on the ground outside the cabin.

Ms Barry, 48, said: "He was face-up, totally unconscious. I called an ambulance, and put towels around his head.

"I don't know how he could have fallen.

"I spoke to the caretaker on the site. He was the last person to see him about 10.20pm. He told him that he was just on his way back to the cabin to see how the party was going."

The court heard that Mr Hopkins-Barry found his father's cigarettes and lighter on the ground nearby the following day.

"I believe he had dropped his cigarettes," he said.

Ms Barry went to the police because she was unsure how he fell, but DS Dave Bristow told the court that Mr Hopkins''s injuries were consistent with a fall.

He said: "There's no evidence to suggest any foul play at all."

A postmortem carried out three days after his death at the Conquest on November 23 found that Mr Hopkins had a 292mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood on admission to hospital, had two skull fractures, and found his cause of death to be a severe head injury as a result of a fall.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, coroner Alan Craze said: "This was a pure accident. How he came to fall, I don't know."