Earliest times

1 The foundation stones

The island· Britain's prehistory' The C elts ' The Romans' Roman life

The island Britain's prehistory

However complicat ed the modern industrial state Britain has not always been an island . It became
may be, land and climate affect life in eve ry one only afte r the end of the last ice age. T he
country. They affect social and eco nom ic life, te mpera ture rose and the ice cap melted , flooding
population and eve n po lit ics. Britain is no the lower-lying lan d tha t is now und er the No rt h
except ion . It has a milder cl ima te th an much of the Sea and th e English C ha nne l.
European mainland beca use it lies in the way of the
The Ice Age was not just one lon g eq ually co ld
Gulf Stream, wh ich brings warm water and winds
period. Th ere were warmer times wh en the ice cap
from th e G ulf of Mexico. Within Britain the re are
retreated, and co lder periods when th e ice ca p
differen ces of climate betwee n north and south ,
reach ed as far south as the River Thames. O ur first
east and west. T he north is on average 5°C coo ler
evidence of hum an life is a few stone tools, dating
than th e south. Annual rainfa ll in the east is on
from one of the warmer period s, about 250, 000 BC .
average about 600 mm, whil e in man y part s of the
These simple objects show th at th ere were two
west it is more th an doubl e tha t. The co untryside is
different kinds of inhabitant. The ea rlier group
varied also. The north and west are mountainous or
made the ir too ls from flakes of flint , similar in kind
hilly. Much of the south and east is fairl y fl at , or
to stone tools found across the north European
low-lying. This mea ns th at th e so uth and east on
plain as far as Russia. The ot her group made too ls
the who le have bette r agricultural conditions, and
from a ce ntral core of flint, probably th e earliest
it is possible to harvest crop s in early A ugust , two
meth od of hu man too l makin g, wh ich spread from
months earlier than in the no rth. So it is not
surprising that southeast Brita in has always been A hand axe, rJ1l.u1e from flint, foundaf Swanscombe in norrh Kent.
the most popu lated parr of th e island. For this
reason it has always had th e most poli tical powe r.
Britain is an island, and Brita in's history has been
closely connected with the sea . U ntil modern t imes
it was as easy to travel across water as it was across
land , whe re roads were frequently unusable. At
moments of great da nger Britain has been saved
from da nger by its surrounding seas. Britain's
history and its strong nation al sense have been
shaped by the sea.
Stonehenge is lhe mml JxlU-'eT{ul mllnlnnem of Britain's prehistory. Irs
purpose is sriII nOf prfJpnly undeTS food. These who built Swnehenge knew
!lOH' to CIl I and m ot't' t't'ry large pieces of stone, and place horiZlmcal stone
beams across the upright pi/lars. They also Iuul [he authority fa conrrol large:
numbers of workers, and to fetch some of fhe stone from diswnr parts of
Wales.
3
A n Illustrat ed History of Britain

Africa to Europe . Hand axes made in thi s way ha ve how to make pottery, They probabl y came from
been found widely, as far north as Yorkshire and as eithe r th e Iberian (Spani sh) peninsula or even the
far west as Wal es. North African coast. They were small, dark , and
long-headed people , and may be the forefath ers of
However, the ice adva nced again and Britain
dark-ha ired inhabitants of Wal es and Corn wall
became hardly habit able until an other milder
today. They settled in th e western parts of Britain
period , probably around 50 ,000 BC. Durin g thi s
and Ireland, from Cornwa ll at th e southwest end of
t ime a new type of human bein g seems ro have
Britain all th e way to th e far north .
arriv ed, who was the an cestor of th e modern
British . T hese people looked similar to rhe mode rn These were the first of several waves of invaders
British, but were probably sma ller and had a life before th e first arrival of the Roman s in 55 BC. It
span of on ly about th irty years. used to be though t th at these waves of invaders
marked fresh srages in British development. How-
Around 10, 000 BC, as th e Ice A ge drew to a close,
eve r, alrho ugh rhey must have brought new ideas
Britain was peop led by small groups of hunters,
and methods, it is now thought th at th e cha nging
gatherers and fis he rs. Few had settled homes, and
pattern of Britain's prehistory was the result of local
th ey seemed to have followed herds of deer which
econo mic and social forces.
provided them with food and clothing. By about
5000 BC Britain had finally become an island, The great "public works" of th is tim e, which
and had also beco me hea vily forested . For the needed a huge organ isat ion of labour, reil us a little
wanderer-hunter culture this was a disaster, for [he of how preh istoric Brirain was developin g. The
co ld- loving deer and other an ima ls on which th ey earlier of these works were great "barrows", or
lived largely died out. burial mounds, made of ea rth or stone. Most of
these barrows are found on th e cha lk uplands of
About 3000 BC Neolith ic (or New Stone Age )
south Brita in. To day th ese upland s have poor soil
peopl e crossed th e narrow sea from Europe in sma ll
and few trees, but they were not like tha t th en .
round boats of bent wood covered with an ima l
T hey were airy woodlands th at co uld easily be
skins. Each could carry one or two persons. These
clea red for farming, and as a result were the most
people kept an ima ls and grew corn crops, and kn ew

There were Stone Age sites from

one end of Britain to {he other.
T his stone hId, at Skara Brae,
Orkney, off the northcoast of
SCOlland, was swlJenly covered
by a sandstorm before 2000 BC.
Unlike southern sites, where
wood was used which hill since
rotted, Skara Brae is all stone.
and the stone furnilure is still
there. Behind the firepillCe
(bottom left) there arestorage
shelves against the back wall. On
the riRht is probably a stone sided
bed, in which rushes err heather
were placed forwarmth.

4
 1 The foundation stones

easily habitable part of th e countryside. Eventually,

and ove r a very long period, the se areas became
overfarmed , whi le by 1400 BC the climate became
drier, and as a result this land co uld no lon ger
suppor t man y peop le. It is d ifficult today to imagi ne
these areas, part icu larly the uplands of Wiltshire
and Dorset , as he avily peop led areas.
Yet the monuments remain . After 3000 BC th e
cha lkland peopl e started building great circles of
earth banks and dit ches. Inside, they built wood en
build ings and sto ne circles. These "henges", as they
are called, were cen tres of religious, polit ica l and
economic power. By far th e most spectac ular, both
then and now, was Stonehenge, wh ich was built
in separate stages over a period of more than a
thousand years. The precise purposes of Stonehenge
remain a mystery, bu t during th e seco nd phase of
build ing, after abo ut 2400 BC, hu ge blueston es were
brough t to th e site from south W ales. This could
only have been ach ieved because th e political
autho rity of th e area surround ing S tonehe nge was
recogni sed over a very large area, indeed probably
over the whole of the British Isles. T he movement ~titf~~'·:f''''
of these bluestones was an extremely important
l.',o....IIi.........._ ......:.iiiilBAl·
, ~Ir~:~
~~~- ~
even t, the sto ry of which was passed on from
gene rat ion to gene ration. Three th ousand yea rs The grat'f~ of one of lht: "Beakt:r" peoplt:. alBamack. CambriJReshiTe.
dlxml /800 BC. It conwins a fineb Jecoraud POtlery be(tker and a copper or
later, these unwritten memories were recorded in bf"(m~e daggcr. Borh itemsdistinguisht..>J lhe Beaker peoplt: fnnn llu: t:aTlicr
Geoffrey of Monrnourh's History of Britain, written inh.wilanf.S. This ~dt'e «'ill llu: nwin bUr"k1l pku:e benRtlm one of a group of
"bcmx cs". or burial mOlmas.
in 1136 .
Stonehenge was almost certainly a sort of capital, Neolirh ic Briton s beca use of th eir mil itar y or met al-
to which th e chiefs of othe r gro ups came from all work ing skills. Their infl uence was soo n felt and, as
over Britain. C ertain ly, earth or stone hen ges were a result, they became leaders of Brit ish soc iety.
built in many part s of Brita in, as far as the O rkney Their arrival is marked by the first ind ividual
Islands north of Sco tla nd, and as far south as graves, furni sh ed with pottery beakers, from which
Corn wall. They seem to have been co pies of th e th ese peopl e get th eir name: the "Beaker" peo ple.
great Sto nehenge in the south. In Ireland the
Why did people now dec ide to be buried separately
cen tre of preh istoric c ivilisation grew around the
River Boyne and at T ara in U lster. The importan ce and give up th e o ld communa l burial barrows? It is
of these place s in folk mem or y far outlasted the di ffi cul t to be ce rtai n, but it is tho ugh t that the old
barr ows were built partly to please th e gods of the
builders of the monuments.
soil, in the hope that th is would stop the chalk
After 2400 BC new groups of peop le arrived in upland so il gett ing poorer. T he Beaker people
southeast Britain from Europe . T he y were round- brou ght with th em from Europe a new cerea l,
headed and strongly built, taller than Ne o lithic barley , which co uld grow almost anywhe re. Perh aps
Britons. It is not known whether they in vaded by they fel t it was no longer necessary to please th e
armed force, or wh ether they were in vit ed by gods of the cha lk upland so il.

5
An Illustrated History of Britain

Maiden Ccsde. Dorset, is oneof thelargesr Celtic hiU·farrs A reconstructed lr071 Age fann. Farms like this were established in southeasl Britain
of the early lr071 Age. Ics strength can stiUbe dean)' seen. fram about 700 ec O71wards. This may haw been rhe main or even 0711)' building; largt
but et'fi'l these forTifications were no defence against round hurs increasingly took the plau of smaller ones. ''ThRir houses are large. round.
disciplined Roman troops. built of planks and uiekeruurk. theroof beinga dome of lMlCh, .. wr ote the Greek
philosopher Srrabo. In men ofCeltic Europe hws were square.

T he Bea ker people prob ably spoke an Indo- From thi s time, too, power seems to have shifted to
European language . They seem to have broug ht a th e Thames valley and southeas t Brita in . Except for
single culture to the who le of Britain. They also short periods, poli t ical and econo mic power has
brought skills to make bronze too ls and th ese began remain ed in the southeast ever since. Hi ll-forts
to replace sto ne one s. But th ey acce pte d man y of rep laced henges as the cent res of local power, an d
the old ways. Stonehenge remaine d th e most most of these were found in the southeast,
important cen tre until 1300 BC. The Beaker suggest ing that the land successfully suppor ted more
peop le's richest graves were the re, and they added a peopl e here th an elsewhere.
new circle of thirt y sto ne co lumns , this time
There was an other reason for the sh ift of power
co nnec ted by stone lintels, or cross-pieces. British
eastwards. A number of better-designed bronze
socie ty continued to be ce ntred on a number of
swords have been found in the Thames va lley,
hen ges ac ross the co untryside.
suggesting th at the local peo ple had more adva nced
However, from about 1300 BC on wards th e henge met alworking skills. Man y of these swords have
civilisation seems to have become less important , been found in river beds, almost ce rtain ly thrown
and was overtaken by a new form of society in in for religious reason s. This custom may be the
southern England, that of a settled farming class. or igin of the sto ry of th e legendary King Arrhur's
At first thi s farming society developed in order to sword , which was given to h im from out of th e
feed the peop le at the henges, but eventually it water and wh ich was thrown back into th e wate r
became more important and powerful as it grew whe n he d ied.
richer. T he new farmers grew wealth y beca use th ey
learn ed to enr ich the soil with natural waste
mate rials so that it did not beco me poor and
The Celts
useless. This change probably happened at about Around 700 BC , ano ther grou p of people began to
th e same time th at the ch alk uplands were arrive. Man y of them were tall, and had fair or red
becoming drier. Famil y villages and fort ified hair and blue eyes. These were the C elts, who
enclosures appeared across the land scape, in lower- prob ably came from central Europe or furthe r eas t,
lying areas as well as on th e chalk hill s, and th e o ld from southe rn Russia, and had moved slowly
central control of Sto nehenge and th e othe r henges westwards in earlier centuries. The Cel ts were
was lost . technically advanced. They kn ew how to work with
6
 1 The foundat ion sto nes

iron, and co uld make better weapon s than the

people who used bronze . It is possible th at th ey
drove many of the o lder inh abitants westwards into
W" les, Sco t land and Ireland . T he Ce lts began to
control "11 th e lowland areas of Britain, and were
joined bv new arriva ls from the European mainl an d.
They co n tinued to arrive in one wave after anot her
over the nex t seve n hundred years.

The Celts are important in British histor y because

they "re th e ances tors of ma ny of the peop le in
Highland Scot land. W" les, Ireland, and Cornwall
today. The Iberian peop le of W" ]es and C ornwall
rook on the new Cel tic culture. Cel tic languages,
which have been con tinuously used in some areas
since that time , "re still spoken . T he British today
"re often descri bed as Anglo-Saxon . It would he
better to ca ll them A nglo-Celr.
Our knowledge of the C elts is sligh t. As with
previous groups of settlers, we do not eve n know for
certain whe ther the Celts invaded Brita in or came
peacefullv as a result of the lively trade with Europe
fron, "hour 750 ne o nwa rds, At first most of C elt ic
Britain seems to have developed in a gen erally
similar way. But from about 500 ne trade contact
with Europe declined , and regiona l differen ces
betwee n northw est and so utheast Britain increased.
Th e C el ts were orga nised int o different tribes, and
tribal ch iefs were chose n from eac h famil y or tribe , The Swnu1ckrum.e lT1lUk ShOtllS rhe j ine Ilrrisric work of Cc/ric mew.!worken
sometimes as the result of fighting match es betwee n in.wow AD 50. The simple fines mul lack uf derail Ml'e 11 t'CT) ptJU'crful
individuals, and some times bv elect ion . cffCCl .

int roducti on of more advanced plough ing meth ods

The last C eltic arrivals from Europe were the Belgic made it possible for the m to farm heav ier soils.
tribes. It was natural for th em to settle in th e However, they co ntinued ro use, and build, hill -
southeas t of Britain , proba bly pushing o the r Ce ltic forts. T he inc rease of th ese, part icularly in the
tribes northwards as th ey did so. Ar any rate , when southeast, suggests th at the Ce lts were highl y
[ulius Caesar briefl y visited Britain in 55 IlC he saw successful farmers, growing eno ugh food for a much
that the Belgic tri bes were different from the older larger populat ion.
inhabitant s. "The interior is inhabited", he wrote ,
The hill -fort remain ed th e centre for local groups.
"by peop les who co nsider themse lves ind igen ous,
The insides of th ese hill -forts were fi lled with
the coast by peop le who have crossed from
houses, and they becam e the simple economic
Belgium. Nearly " 11 of th ese still keep th e names of
ca pita ls and sma ller "town s" of th e different tribal
the [European] tribes from which the y came."
areas into wh ich Britain was now divided. Toda y
The C elt ic tr ibes continued th e same kind of the empty hill -forts stand on lonel y hill tops. Yet
agriculture as th e Bronze Age peop le before th em . they remained local economic centres lon g after th e
But their use of iron technology and th eir Roman s ca me to Britain , and long after they went.
7
An Illustrated History of Britain

W ithin living memory ce rtain annual fairs were powerful C elt to stand up to the Romans was a
associa ted with hill -forts. For example, there was an woman , Boadicea. She had beco me queen of her
annual Septe mber fair on the site of a Dorset hill- tribe when her husband had died. She was tall,
fort, which was used by th e write r T homas Hardy in with long red hair, and had a frighten ing
his novel Far from the Madding Crowd, published in appea rance. In AD 6 1 she led her tribe against the
1874. Romans. She nearly dro ve the m from Britain, and
she destroyed Lond on, the Roma n capital, before
The C elts traded across tribal borde rs and trade was
she was defeat ed and killed. Roman writers
probably importan t for political and social contact
comme nted on the courage and strength of women
between th e tribes. Trade with Ireland went
in battl e, and leave an impr ession of a measure of
through the island of A nglesey. The two ma in trade
equa lity betwee n the sexes among the richer C elts.
outle ts eastwards to Europ e were th e settle ments
along th e T hame s River in the south and on th e
Firth of Forth in the north . It is no acc ident tha t The Romans
the presen t-day cap ita ls of England and Sco tla nd
The name "Brita in" comes from the word
stand on or near these two ancient trade ce ntres.
"Pretani ", the G reco- Rornan word for the
Much trade, both inside and beyond Britain , was
inhabitant s of Brita in . T he Romans mispronounced
co nducted by river and sea. For money the C elts
the word and called th e island " Brita nnia".
used iron bars, until th ey began to copy the Roman
co ins they saw used in Gaul (France) . The Rom an s had invaded beca use th e Celts of
Brit ain were working with th e C elts of G au l against
According to the Rom an s, the Celtic men wore
th em. T he British C elts were giving the m food, an d
sh irts and breec hes (knee-length trousers), and
allowing th em to h ide in Brit ain . There was
str iped or chec ked cloaks fastened by a pin . It is
anot he r reason . The C elts used cattle to pull their
possible that the Sco tt ish tarta n and dress
ploughs and th is meant that rich er, heavier land
developed from th is "str iped cloak". The C elts were
could be farmed. Und er the Celts Britain had
also "very careful about cleanl iness and neatness" ,
become an important food producer because of its
as one Roman wrote. "Ne ither man nor woman ,"
mild climate . It now exported co rn and an ima ls, as
he went on, "howeve r poor, was seen eithe r ragged
well as hunting dogs and slaves , to th e Europea n
or dirt y."
mainl and. T he Roman s cou ld make use of Brit ish
T he Ce ltic tribes were ruled ove r by a warrior class, food for thei r own army fighting the Gauls.
of which th e priests, or Druids, seem to have been
The Romans brought th e skills of reading and
parti cu larly important members. These Druids
writing to Britain. Th e written word was important
could not read or write, but they memorised all the
for spreading ideas and also for estab lish ing power.
religious teachi ngs, the trib al laws, histor y,
As early as AD 80, as one Roman at the time not ed ,
med icine and ot her kn owledge necessary in Celt ic
the governor Agricola "trained the sons of ch iefs in
soc iety. The Dru ids from different trib es all ove r
the liberal art s .. . the result was th at th e peop le
Britain pro bab ly met once a year. They had no
who used to reject Latin began to use it in speec h
temples, but the y met in sacred groves of trees, on and writ ing. Further the wearing of our national
certain hills, by rivers or by river sources. We kn ow
dress came to be valued and the toga [the Roman
littl e of their kind of worship except th at at times it
cloak] came into fash ion." While the C elt ic
included hu man sacrifice. peasantry remained illit erate and on ly C el tic-
During the Celtic period wo men may have had spea king, a number of town dwe llers spoke Lat in
more independence th an they had again for and G reek with ease, and the rich er landowners in
hund reds of years. W hen the Romans invaded the co unt ry almost certa in ly used Latin . Bur Latin
Britain two of th e largest tribes were ruled by co mpletely disappea red both in its spoken and
wome n who fought from their cha riots. T he most written forms when th e A nglo-Saxons in vaded
8
 I The foundation stones

Britain in rhe fifth century AD. Britain was probably Germanic groups, Saxon s and Frank s, began to raid
more literate under the Romans than it was to be the coast of Gaul, In A D 409 Rome pulled its last
again until the fifteenth century. soldiers out of Britain and the Romano-Briti sh , the
Romanised Celts, were left to figh t alone against
[ulius C aesar first came to Brita in in 55 BC, but it
the Scots, th e Irish and Saxon raider s from
was not until alm ost a cen tury later, in AD 43, that
Germany. The following year Rome itself fell to
a Roman army actu ally occupied Britain. The
raiders. W hen Brita in called to Rome for he lp
Romans were de termined to conquer the whole
against the raiders from Saxon G erma ny in th e
island . They had little difficulty, apart from
mid-fifth century, no answer came .
Boadicea's revolt , beca use they had a better trained
army and beca use the Celtic tribes fought among
themselves. The Romans co nsidered the Celts as
war-mad , "high spirited and quick for bat tle", a
Roman life
descripti on some wou ld st ill give the Scots, Irish The most obvious cha racteristic of Roman Britain
and Wel sh today. was its towns, which were th e basis of Roman
administration and civi lisat ion. Many grew out of
The Rom an s established a Romano-British culture
Celtic settlements , military camps or market
across the sout hern half of Britain , from the River
centres. Broad ly, ther e were three different kinds of
Humber to the River Sev ern . T his part of Brita in
town in Roman Britain , two of which were towns
was inside th e emp ire. Beyond were the upland
estab lished by Roman cha rter. T hese were the
areas, under Roman con tro l but not developed.
coloniae, towns peop led by Roman settlers, and the
Th ese areas were watched from the towns of York,
municipia , large cities in which th e who le
Chester and Caerleon in the western pen insula of
popu lation was given Roman citizensh ip. The third
Britain th at later becam e kn own as Wales. Each of
kind, the civitas, included th e old C elt ic tr ibal
these towns was held by a Roman legion of about
cap itals, through which th e Roman s ad min istered
7,000 men . The total Roman army in Britain was
the C eltic popu lat ion in the countryside. At first
about 40, 000 men .
these towns had no walls. Then, probably from the
The Romans co uld not conquer "Ca ledoni a" , as end of the seco nd cen tury to the end of the thi rd
they called Scotla nd , although they spent over a century AD, almost every town was given walls. At
century trying to do so. At last they bu ilt a strong fi rst man y of the se were no more than earthworks,
wall along the northern border, named after the but by AD 300 all towns had thick stone walls.
Emperor Hadrian who planned it. At the time ,
Hadrian's wall was simply intended to keep out The Romans left about twenty large towns of about
raiders from the north. But it also marked the 5, 000 inhabitants, and almost one hundred smaller
border between th e two later countries, England ones. Man y of thes e towns were at first army camps,
and Scotland. Eventually, th e border was and the Latin word for camp, castra, has remain ed
established a few miles furt her nort h . Efforts to part of many town name s to this day (with th e
change it in later centuries did no t succeed , mainly
ending chester, caster or cesrer) : G loucester, Lei-
cester, Doncaster, Winch ester, Chester, Lancaster
because on either side of the border an invadin g
army found its supply line overstre tched. A natural and many others besides. These towns were built
point of balance had been found. with stone as well as wood , and had plan ned
streets, markets and sho ps. So me build ings had
Roman co nt rol of Britain came to an end as the central heating. They were connected by roads
empir e began to collapse. The first signs were th e which were so well built that th ey survived when
attacks by C elts of C aled onia in AD 367. T he later roads broke up. These roads contin ued to be
Roman legions found it more and more difficult to used long after the Roman s left , and became the
stop the raiders from crossing Hadrian 's wall. The main roads of modern Brita in. Six of the se Roman
same was happen ing on the European mainland as roads met in London, a cap ita l city of about 20,000
9
A n Illustrated History of Britain

The reconslrw,:tiOll of a ROITI4m

kifcht.>t1 ab!:JW AD 100 shuu's txJl.5
and cqllipmetlf. The ~1I1 pOIS , or
am pho rae. were for wne or oil.
The R(JI1'UlflS proolh.-l.'d willl.' in
Briwin, bill the)' als(l imtxmeJ if
from S(JU ffu.'TTl Europe.

peop le. London was twice the size of Paris, and It is very difficult to be sure how man y peop le were
possibly the most important trading cent re of livin g in Britain when the Romans left. Probably it
northern Europe , because southeast Britain was as man y as five million. partly because of the
produced so much co rn for export. peace and the increased econo mic life wh ich th e
Romans had brought to the count ry. The new wave
O utside the towns, the biggest change during the
of in vaders cha nged all that .
Roman occ upation was the growth of large farms,
ca lled "vi llas". These belonged fa rh e richer Brito ns
who were, like the tow nspeop le, more Roman than
Celt in thei r manners. Each villa had many
workers. The vill as were usually close to tow ns so
th at the crops co uld be sold easily. There was a
grow ing difference betwee n the rich and those who
did the actual work on th e land . T hese. and most
people. still lived in th e same kind of round hu ts
and villages wh ich the C elts had been living in four
hund red yea rs earlier. when th e Rom an s arr ived.
In some ways life in Roman Britain seems ve ry
c ivilised. but it was also hard for all exce pt the
richest. The bodies buried in a Roman graveyard at
York show tha t life expectancy was low. Half the
ent ire populatio n died between the ages of twenty
and forty. whil e 15 pet cent died before reaching
the age of twenty.
10