Historic eras
| What was happening?
| What can you see now?
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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 
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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 
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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 
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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 
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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 
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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. |
