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Two thousand years ago, Barking and Dagenham was within the territory of the Trinovantes tribe. Their capital city was at Colchester. British tribes, like the Trinovantes, were ruled by a king, supported by his warriors. Most people were farmers or crafters who made things such as pottery, jewellery and metalwork. The Britons (sometimes called Celts) lived in roundhouses. The walls were made of a wooden frame covered with mud and clay. The high roof was made of straw, which allowed smoke from the fire to escape. Inside was one large room used for cooking, eating, sleeping and daily life. Traces of roundhouses have been found at Warren Farm, between Marks Gate and Chadwell Heath.
Though Britain was still independent, the influence of the Roman Empire, which now extended to the coast of France, was very strong. Feuding British rulers turned to Rome for support in their quarrels, or fled there as refugees if defeated. Some adopted the Roman title 'rex' (meaning 'king') and imitated Roman styles for their coins. Trade with the Roman Empire also increased and Roman luxury goods, like those found in Lexden Tumulus (the burial mound of a powerful British ruler at Colchester), were valued as 'status symbols' by wealthy Britons. It is even possible that some Britons took to wearing fashionable Roman clothing.
The area where Great Yarmouth now stands was originally a huge estuary. Out of it emerged a sand bank stretching eight miles in length from Caister to Corton. The water from the estuary initially escaped to the sea at Grubb’s Haven to the north, though this silted up, forcing its flow south. The first people to come to Great Yarmouth were fishermen who followed the herring and used the sand bank to dry and repair their nets. Gradually, permanent buildings were erected and a settlement was formed. By the Domesday survey in AD 1086, Yarmouth had established itself as a town with 70 people. The map shows east Norfolk in Roman times. The areas indicated in blue were probably similar to Breydon Water today – mud flats at low tide but open water at high tide.
Cunobelinus, whose name means 'the Hound of Belinus' ('the Shining One', a British god) was the most powerful British ruler in the decades before the Roman Conquest. He was the leader of the Catuvellauni tribe, which had headed the resistance to Julius Caesar, from about AD 10. He extended his rule over all south-eastern Britain, from Kent to the Wash, and the Romans thought him 'King of (all) the Britons'. His 'capital' was Camulodunum (now Colchester). Cunobelinus remained friendly with Rome throughout his long reign. British corn, cattle, gold, silver, iron, pearls, slaves and hunting dogs were traded for Roman luxuries like ivory and amber jewellery, glass and wine. However, after his death in about AD 42, his sons adopted policies which helped encourage Roman invasion.
At Mellor, on the western edge of the Peak District, a remarkable research project has uncovered evidence of an Iron Age settlement buried deep underground. Initially archaeologists thought the Iron Age site was a hill fort, but as digging continued it became clear that the site was a hill-top settlement. It is thought that several roundhouses were located within a deep, defensive inner ditch. Digging such a ditch would have been a massive engineering task! Iron Age people must have lived here for a long time because the roundhouses show phases of development. Finds also show that people here were importing salt and metal. A lot of Iron Age pottery has been recovered at the site; this helps us learn how pottery changed over time.
Caesar says that the Britons used bronze or iron rings as currency (money). However, gold and silver coins had already existed for hundreds of years in Asia, Greece and Rome, and by about 150 BC they had reached Britain. The first coins were imports from France. Not long after Caesar's raids, tribal rulers in southern and eastern Britain began producing ('minting') coins of their own. These were made by hammering an iron punch (or dye) engraved with a pattern onto discs of precious metal. Soon some British coins included the name of the ruler who ordered them. Among the earliest of these were made for Commios, at first an ally and then an enemy of the Romans, who ruled in the Hampshire-West Sussex region.
Fawdon Hill sits within the Breamish and Ingram Valley in Northumberland. In the hills and valleys you can see traces of forts and burial mounds from the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. If you explore this area you will also see signs of ancient methods of farming that have left their mark on the landscape. Hill forts were built up mounds of earth with a settlement on the top. You can find evidence of hill forts all over Europe. At the Fawdon Hill Fort site, you can see marks in the earth where the circular huts would have stood. There is also evidence of a cairn (a pile of rocks marking a burial ground) and traces in the earth of some ramparts which were the walls around the settlement.
People had lived in the area for thousands of years, but Leicester began as a late Iron Age settlement set up by people from the Corieltauvi tribe who were of Celtic origin. The settlement now known as Leicester was established on the eastern bank of the River Soar, close to where West Bridge now stands. Archaeological evidence suggests the people led an organised way of life. Traces of roundhouses, high-quality pottery and jewellery have been found. In AD 43, Leicester was invaded by the Romans. Its name was recorded as ‘Ratae’ meaning ‘ramparts’, and by AD 48 the Romans had built a fort. The Celtic settlement nearby prospered because the Roman soldiers provided a market for local goods. About AD 80 the Roman Army moved on, but the town of Leicester thrived.
In AD 43 the Romans landed at Richborough in Kent with an army of about 40,000 soldiers. They defeated the Britons (led by Caratacus and Togodumnus, sons of Cunobelinus) on the River Medway, and then fought their way over the Thames. The Emperor Claudius joined them for a triumphal entry into Colchester, the British 'capital', accompanied by the first elephants seen in Britain. However, Britain was far from fully conquered. One Roman legion marched northwards from Colchester towards Lincoln, another into the Midlands, and a third fought its way into the south-west, besieging and capturing many British hill forts on the way. By AD 47 all Britain south of a line from Devon to the Humber was under Roman control.
The oldest written descriptions of Britain, by Ancient Greek authors, describe a land of magical wonders beyond the known world. Although he had visited only south-east England, Julius Caesar gives a slightly more realistic account. Writing in about 47 BC, perhaps to impress Roman readers, he described the Britons as fierce barbarian warriors who shaved their bodies and dyed them blue with woad, but wore long hair and moustaches. He also wrote that they would not eat hares, cockerels or geese but kept them as pets. Caesar thought the south-eastern tribes, some of whom had only recently come from France, were the most civilised Britons. He declared that those living further inland grew no crops, ate only meat and dairy products and wore animal skins. Archaeology proves he was wrong!
