The British Isles have a rich history going back thousands of years. Unfortunately few of us in Britain really know much about our history. Retrospectively I think there must have been something radically flawed with history as it is taught in out schools as our history is fascinating. For this history guide, we shall divide the period of British history into four main chunks, and each of these four main chunks then subdivided into bite sized chapters that try to explain the way that things happened History is an interweaving of events and people, and its not just about kings and queens, its about ordinary people and how events influenced them, and on occasions how they influenced events. Also one has to realise that Britain is not one nation, but a hodge podge of different peoples who tend to remain distinct in spite of a millenium or more of intermarriage. I have therefore put in separate chapters on Ireland, Scotland and Wales, each with its own history y4000 BC to 1066, the Dawn of Civilisation to the Norman Conquest 4000 to 1500 BC stone age man, t he first farmers, Stonehenge 1500 BC to 43 AD the age of hill forts a nd the Celts 43 AD to 410 AD Roman Britain, they came, they saw, t hey conquered 410 to 1066 the Romans leave, the Anglo Saxons arrive, the Nor mans conquery1066 to 1660, the Norman Conquest to Cromwell 1066 to 1154 the Normans c onsolidate their conques t 1154 to 1485 the Middle Ages, who wants to be king? 1485 to 1603 Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and t he Tudo rs 1603 to 1660 the divine right of kings to rule, then chop off their heads y1660 to 1918, Cromwell to the end of World War I 1660 to 1715 Restoration and Revolution, the beginning of Empire 1715 to 1815 The German Georges rule Britain 1600 to 1783 Britain in North America - we would rather forget 1815 to 1914 Peace and prosperity, the growth of E mpi re yBritain in the 20th Century1914 to 1918 The First World War, carnage without a cause 1918 to 1939 the after effects of World War I, the General Strike 1939 to 1945 Hitler's War1945 to 2000 Post War Britain - loses an Empire, looks for a role The dawn of farming
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Human beings have been living in the part of northern Europe that is today called
Britain for about 750,000 years. For most of that time, they subsisted by gathering
food like nuts, berries, leaves and fruit from wild sources, and by hunting.
Over the millennia there were phases of extreme cold, when large areas of Britain
were covered in ice, followed by warmer times. Around 10,000 years ago, the latest
ice age came to an end. Sea levels rose as the ice sheets melted, and Britainbecame separated from the European mainland short ly before 6000 BC.
The introduction of farming was one of the biggest changes in human
history.
The people living on the new islands of Britain were descendants of the first modern
humans, or Homo sapiens, who arrived in northern Europe around 30,000 - 40,000
years ago. Like their early ancestors they lived by hunting and gathering.
The introduction of farming, when people learned how to produce rather than
acquire their food, is widely regarded as one of the biggest changes in humanhistory.
This change happened at various times in several different places around the world.
The concept of farming that reached Britain between about 5000 BC and 4500 BC
had spread across Europe from origins in Syria and Iraq between about 11000 BC
and 9000 BC.
Neolithic revolution?
The change from a hunter-gatherer to a farming way of life is what defines the startof the Neolithic or New Stone Age. In Britain the preceding period of the last, post -
glacial hunter-gatherer societies is known as the Mesolithic, or Middle Stone Age.
It used to be believed that the introduction of farming into Britain was the result of
a huge migration or folk-movement from across the Channel. Today, studies of DNA
suggest that the influx of new people was probably quite small - somewhere around
20% of the total population were newcomers.
Farming took 2,000 years to spread across the British Isles.
So the majority of early farmers were probably Mesolithic people who adopted thenew way of life and took it with them to other parts of Britain. This was not a rapid
change - farming took about 2,000 years to spread across all parts of the British
Isles.
Traditionally the arrival of farming is seen as a major and rapid change sometimes
called the 'Neolithic revolution'. Today, largely thanks to radiocarb on dates, we can
appreciate that the transition from hunter-gatherer to farmer was relatively
We know, for example, that hunters in the Mesolithic 'managed' or tended their
quarry. They would make clearings in woodland around sources of drinking w ater,
and probably made efforts to see that the herds of deer and other animals they
hunted were not over-exploited.
The switch from managed hunting to pastoral farming was not a big change. The
first farmers brought the ancestors of cattle, sheep and goats with them from thecontinent. Domestic pigs were bred from wild boar, which lived in the woods of
Britain.
Neolithic farmers also kept domesticated dogs, which were bred from wolves. It is
probable that the earliest domesticated livestock were allowed to wander, maybe
tended by a few herders.
Sheep, goats and cattle are fond of leaves and bark, and pigs snuffle around roots.
These domestic animals may have played a major role in clearing away the huge
areas of dense forest that covered most of lowland Bri tain.
This period, sometimes referred to as the Middle Neolithic, also witnesses the
appearance of the first large communal tombs, known as long barrows, or mound s,
and the earliest ceremonial monuments, known as 'causewayed' enclosures.
Here people from communities in a particular region would gather together,
probably at regular intervals, to socialise, to meet new partners, to acquire fresh
livestock and to exchange ceremonial gifts.
During these ceremonies, rituals took place which often involved the burial of
significant items, such as finely-polished stone axeheads, complete pottery vessels,
or human skulls.
Some of the great ceremonial monuments of the Middle Neolithic, such as the so-
called 'passage' graves, were aligned according to the position of the sun during the
winter or summer solstice.
The long passage of a passage grave could be carefully positioned to allow the sun
on the shortest few days of the year to shine directly into the central burialchamber. Passage graves were also constructed to provide good acoustics, and it
seems most probable that they were the scenes of ritual or religious theatrical
performances.
The so-called 'henge' monuments, like the famous Stonehenge, seem to have
developed out of the causewayed enclosures from around 3000 BC.
They also incorporate lunar and solar alignments which are seen as a means of
uniting the physical and social structures of human societies with the powers of the
natural world.
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The Bronze Age
Neolithic houses were usually rectangular thatched buildings made from timber with
walls of wattle (woven hazel rods) smeared with a plaster-like 'daub' (made from
clay, straw and cow dung).
Some of the larger buildings were the size and shape of a Saxon hall and may well
have been communal. Most others were smaller and would have been adequate for
a family of six to ten people.
The appearance of metal marks an important technological development,
especially in the control of fire.
Neolithic houses are far more commonly found in Scotland and Ireland than in
England or Wales, where communities may have retained a more mobile pattern of
are hill forts. Nearly 3,000 examples are known from across the British Isles,ranging in size from small enclosures of less than one hectare, to massive, multi-
ditched sites like Maiden Castle in Dorset and Old Oswestry in Shropshire.
The function and form of these monuments varied greatly over time. The earliest
examples date from the late Bronze Age and ear ly Iron Age (900-600 BC) and show
little evidence of permanent settlement. Instead, these early sites often appear to
have been used for seasonal gatherings, perhaps for trade, exchange and religious
activities, with a further function as a storage centre for the broader community.
By 450 BC, many of these early hill forts were going out of use. Those that survived
were subject to major phases of rebuilding, often with multiple banks and ditches,
very complex entrances and clear evidence of a large and perm anent population.
The function and form of hill forts varies greatly over time
The excavation of Danebury in Hampshire has revealed, in considerable detail, the
development of a hill fort from the eighth century BC until its abandonment in the
were extremely varied. In some regions, such as southern England, formal burials
were rare, with only a relatively small number of adult burials known from pits
inside hill forts and other settlements.
Finds of fragmentary human bone on many sites have led to the suggestion that
the majority of the population in this region were disposed of by 'excar nation' - the
deliberate exposure of the corpse.
In the south west and west, bodies were sometimes interred in small stone coffins,
known as 'cists'. In East Yorkshire, large formal cemeteries including burials with
cart and horse equipment have been discovered. These show strong similarities
with Iron Age burials in the Champagne region of France.
Most remarkable of all are the bog bodies, examples of which are known from
across the British Isles and northern Europe. Many of these show evidence of a
violent death, and in the cases of Lindow Man from Lindow Moss in Cheshire and
the recent Irish discoveries at Clonycavan and Croghan, a possible ritual or
sacrificial killing has been suggested.
Many bog bodies show evidence of a violent death, and possible ritual or
sacrificial killing
The placing of these individuals in wet locations may also link with the later
prehistoric ritual practice of depositing metalwork in rivers, lakes and bogs. Such
locations have produced some of the finest Iron Age metalwork known in the British
Isles. These include the Waterloo Helmet and Battersea Shield, both from the River
Thames; the Llyn Cerig Bach hoard from a bog on Anglesey in North Wales; and the
gold torc from a bog at Clonmacnoise in Ireland.
The Iron Age saw the production of some of the finest prehistoric metalwork knownfrom the British Isles. Native bronze and goldsmiths were producing very high
quality items that indicate close contacts with their continental counterparts.
Inspired by the so-called 'Celtic' style emanating from La Tene in Switzerland, the
smiths produced a wide range of high quality items, many richly decorated with
incised designs accompanied by enameled inlays. The artefacts produced ranged
from personal items such as brooches to prestige objects including torcs (neck