A TIMELINE OF FOOD IN BRITAIN

Since the Neolithic period, many types of food have become available to people living in the British Isles. The Romans brought a variety of exotic foods, and European exploration of other parts of the world led to imports of new foodstuffs such as potatoes, tomatoes, sugar and chocolate.

Use this timeline to find out when different foods became widely available in Britain.

THE GUARDIAN

The next time you bite into a pork-and-leek sausage, remember to thank the Romans. Show some gratitude to the Celts, too, for inventing the bacon sarnie. These are the sorts of foodie facts you learn when squatting by a clay pit fire in a Cornish field, chatting to Jacqui Wood. An archaeologist, Wood has studied the history of British food from the stone age right up to the 1970s