Palaeolithic
(Old Stone Age)
500,000-8000BC

Southern Britain occupied by cave dwelling, hunting communities during interglacial periods.

Small-scale finds across the UK.

Mesolithic
(Middle Stone Age)
8000-4000BC

Nomadic hunter/ gatherers.

Extensive finds at Marsden Moor.

Possible settlement at Tatton Park

Formby footprints, Merseyside.

Neolithic
(New Stone Age)
4000-2000BC

Prominent burial & ritual sites. Settled farming communities, pottery producing.

Stone circles at Stonehenge, Avebury, Castlerigg & NW of Troutbeck Park.

Standing stones at Hafotty-fach, Gwynedd.

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Bronze Age
2000-801 BC

Expanding settlements & populations, development of metalwork.

Settlement & field systems at Boat How, Burnmoor, Eskdale, Ennerdale & Duddon.

Early mining & smelting at Alderley Edge.

Iron Age
800-42AD

Widespread use of metal for tools, spread of iron working. High status defensive hillforts.

Hill forts at Cadbury Camp, Somerset, Badbury Hill, Coleshill estate & promontory fort at Dinas Gynfor, Anglesey.

Burial chamber at Plas Newydd.

Roman
43-409AD

Conquest of Britain by Roman Empire, military forts, road system & villas. Introduction of Christianity.

Fortifications at Housesteads, Hadrians Wall and shore fort at Branodonum, Brancaster.

Industry at Dolaucothi Gold Mines.

Settlement with mosaics at Chedworth Roman villa, Gloucestershire & bath house at Letocetum, Staffs.

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Early Medieval
410-1066AD

Spread of Christianity. Saxon and Viking invasions & colonisations.

Anglo-Saxon burial site at Sutton Hoo.

Anglo-Saxon settlement site at Frogmore in Attingham Park.

Medieval
1066-1540AD

Norman conquest. Expansion of internal trade routes & markets. Height of the great monasteries. Consolidation of English nation from Domesday Survey to Magna Carta.

Norman fortifications at Skenfrith & Corfe castles.

Cistercian monastery & watermill remains at Fountains Abbey.

Deserted Medieval settlement at Wimpole estate & harbour at Winchelsea.

Tudor
1485-1602AD

Break with Catholic Church & disolution of the monasteries. End of the Hundred Years War. Cultural flourishing - Shakespeare & Bacon.

Prosperous Merchant's House, Tenby.

Green Head Gill Mine near Grasmere Common.

Half-timbered noble manor at Speke Hall.

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Stuart
1603-1714AD

Religious & political discontent - English Civil War. Urban squalor & overcrowding - the Great Plague & Great Fire of London. Still a mostly rural society.

English Civil War siege at Corfe Castle.

Lakeland vernacular farmhouse at Hill Top & yeoman's estate at Woolsthorpe Manor.

Georgian
1714-1836AD

Beginning of agricultural & industrial 'Revolutions'.

Fashion for Greek & Roman antiquity in high society.

Agricultural landscape at Malham Tarn, the Yorkshire Dales.

Cotton production at Quarry Bank Mill.

Palladian mansion & classical landscaped park at West Wycombe.

Victorian
1837-1901AD

Large-scale industry & mineral extraction.

Expanding urban working classes & city slums.

Move towards a 'welfare state'.

Industrial heritage at Dolaucothi Gold Mines, Levant & Cornish mines & engines.

'Back to Back' court yard housing in Birmingham.

Victorian Workhouse institution, Southwell.

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Modern
1901-present day

Growth of middle classes & suburbanisation.

Major international conflict - WW1, WW2, Cold War.

1920s house & garden at Goddards, York & Modernist residence at The Homewood.

WW2 remains at White Cliffs of Dover & Cold War military site at Orford Ness.