The Story of Britain up to 1066
So who lived here first?
The British Isles (the correct term for the Islands that make up most of what people call Britain) lie off the north-west corner of the European mainland. We dont know much about the first people who lived in Britain. The latest thinking is that for hundreds of thousands of years, there was probably no humans in Britain at all! But there were animals.
Then, about half a million years ago, people from Europe began to arrive. these were Britain's earliest immigrants! They were hunter-gatherers who lived by gathering food and by killing animals for meat and fur. They moved around in small groups, sheltering in caves or building basic huts. For thousands of years, life in Britain remained largely unchanged.
5000BC - STONE AGE
Agriculture begins
Around 5000 years ago, an important change happened. People learned how to farm and produce their own food rather than having to hunt around for it. New settlers brought wheat and barley seeds to grow crops. They also built more permanent homes and cleared large areas of woodland for farming.
2500BC - BRONZE AGE
A time of metal
In about 2500BC, a new wave of settlers began arriving in Britain from central Europe. they were known as the Beaker people. The Beaker people knew how to make things out of copper and gold. When tin was added to copper it made it bronze... this became known as the Bronze Age. Soon tools and weapons made from metal replaced the ones made of wood and stone.
1000BC - IRON AGE
A new kind of metal
The Iron Age was the period of time after the Bronze Age. It is the third and last stage of the 3 aged system. Its named the Iron Age because people started using iron to make tools and weapons: this was a much stronger and reliable metal than bronze. We call the people who lived in Iron Age Britain the Celts.
The Celts
500BC
The Romans
43AD
The Anglo-Saxons
Historians are not sure why the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain. Some sources say that the Saxon warriors were invited to come, to the area now know as England, to help keep out invaders from Scotland and Ireland. Another reason for coming may have been because their land often flooded and it was difficult to grow crops, so they were looking for new places to settle down and farm.
They ruled in England for about 500 years (a hundred years longer than the Romans). However, unlike the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons never 'went home'; many people living in Britain today have Anglo Saxon ancestors. The name England even comes from the Saxon word 'Angle-Land'.
The Vikings
The Viking Age in Britain began about 1,200 years ago in the 9th Century AD and lasted for just over 200 years.
About the year 800, bands of fierce raiders began to attack our coasts. They were the Vikings (also called the Danes although they didn't just come from Denmark.).
The Vikings came across the North Sea, just as the Anglo-Saxons had done 400 years earlier. In time, like the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings made their home here. They drove the Saxons out of part of the country and took it for themselves.
