Timeline British History

British history is long and rich going back thousands of years. Time after time between about 2,700 years ago and 950 years ago, attackers, settlers and raiders arrived in the British Isles. They found new kingdoms and bought with them new beliefs and technologies.

For our timeline we shall divide the period of British history into ten main chunks to try and explain what was happening in England and Britain during the last six thousand years.

Old Stone Age

The first men and women came to Britain over two and a half million years ago. As the climate got warmer at the end of the second ice age, tribes of hunters and gatherers of food, who used simple stone tools and weapons, made their way into Britain. It was normal for them to move from place to place so they could find new resources.

These people left no literature, but they did leave many burial chambers, monuments and artifacts. Stone circles, Neolithic tombs and tools have been found all over the British Isles from the tip of Cornwall in the south to the very north of Scotland.

Britain used to be joined to the European land mass by a land bridge. It is believed that Stone Age man migrated to Britain across the land bridge. Britain became an island separate from the rest of Europe about 8,500 years ago, when melting ice formed the English Channel.

Bronze Age begins

First metal workers
People learn to make bronze weapons and tools.
Introduction of cremation of the dead and burials in round barrows.

Beaker culture - their name is thought to originate from the distinctive beakers that accompanied their burials. They were farmers and archers. They lived in round huts (similar to the Celts) with a low stone wall for a base. The roof was made of thatch, turf, or hides.

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