Celts, Romans and Saxons
Travel back in time and live the life of ancient days
What was it like to live in the years BC (before central heating)? Well you can easily discover how, because lots of ancient homes still survive. Some are almost 5,000 years old.
And who invented central heating in Britain? The clever Romans of course, who left these isles about 1,600 years ago. Their underfloor heating (hypocausts) often survives in forts and country houses (villas), as well as baths and even communal toilets (without cubicles).
After the Romans left, Britons, Saxons and Vikings huddled for centuries round the fire hearth, sharing jokes and recounting heroic deeds. Archaeologists have found the sites of some their villages, and from the remains have reconstructed the timber houses and barns. They look a bit like your shed. See for yourself these amazing remains, some as old as the pyramids and the Parthenon.
It's no day trip to Skara Brae on Orkney, but this is the best-preserved prehistoric village in northern Europe. Beds and seats survive within the 5,000-year-old stone houses. Cornwall has two good prehistoric villages at Carn Euny and Chysauster, the former with an underground passage called a 'fogou' - mind your head. Flag Fen near Peterborough is remarkable for the preservation of a 3,000-year-old timber walkway that once stretched for 0.6 mile (1km) across the fens. There is also a reconstruction of a round house, and the unique Seahenge timber circle from the north Norfolk coast. Just as rare is the accessible prehistoric flint mine at Grimes Graves, Norfolk. The 29-foot (9m) shaft was dug with antler picks for flints to be made into axes.
Roman daily life is easily visible along Hadrian's Wall in Northumbria. At Housesteads fort on the wall is a well-preserved communal toilet for the soldiers (who used a sponge on a stick instead of toilet paper). And nearby there are extensive remains of a garrison town at Corbridge, where the Stanegate Roman road still passes through the site. Fine examples of underfloor heating survive at Fishbourne and Bignor in West Sussex. These sites were grand country houses and their ornate mosiac floors still survive, including a depiction of a gladiator. The municipal baths are the main surviving feature at Wroxeter in Shropshire, which was the fourth-largest city in Roman Britain. The site museum describes the beauty treatments of the citizens.
And then came the Anglo-Saxons from northern Europe - and the Dark Ages. The excavated village at West Stow in Suffolk dates from about 420-650 AD. Archaeologists have carefully reconstructed the buildings, which stand next to a country park. Of the same period in the same county is Sutton Hoo, the burial ground of the Anglo-Saxon kings of East Anglia. There is an exhibition about the treasures in the famous ship burial, and also heathland and woodland walks. The Vikings later arrived in similar ships and their communities are vividly brought to life at Jorvik in York and at Vikingar! in Largs in Ayrshire. To end our story with the Norman conquest in 1066, there is Mountfitchet Castle Experience in Essex, where a real castle has been given timber palisades, houses and even a mangonel (huge catapult).
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