Early Britain, to 1066

7 stops33 facts

Almost everything from these centuries is something people left behind rather than something they wrote down: a ring of huge stones in Wiltshire, a village of stone houses on Orkney, a hill fort in Dorset, a wall built across the north by an empire that invaded twice before it stayed. Four arrivals shape the era, and each leaves the next something to deal with. The Romans leave forts and a wall. The Anglo-Saxons leave kingdoms, a language and a ship burial at Sutton Hoo. The Vikings leave the Danelaw and place names still on the map today. It ends on one day in 1066, at Hastings, with a Norman duke on the English throne and a survey of the country to come.

What is in this era

  1. Stone, bronze and ironStonehenge, Skara Brae on Orkney and Maiden Castle in Dorset, the first farmers in Britain, and the start of the Bronze Age.
  2. The Roman invasionsJulius Caesar in 55 BC, the Emperor Claudius in AD 43, and Hadrian’s Wall — the two Roman invasions of Britain and what was built here.
  3. Boudicca and the Roman fortsThe revolt of the Iceni against the Romans, the statue of Boudicca in London, and the forts at Housesteads and Vindolanda.
  4. The Anglo-SaxonsThe Roman army leaves in 410, the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms are established, the ship burial at Sutton Hoo, and how Christianity arrived.
  5. The VikingsThe first Viking raids on Britain in 789, the Danelaw in the east and north, and the kingdoms that united against them.
  6. The Norman ConquestThe invasion of 1066, the Battle of Hastings, and the survey of every landholding in England that produced the Domesday Book.
  7. Feudalism and the Bayeux TapestryWilliam the Conqueror's Norman origins, the feudal system he brought to England, and the Bayeux Tapestry that recorded his victory.

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