First People
Britain Before English
Course 1 · Chapter 1 · First People
People lived in Britain for hundreds of thousands of years before anyone spoke English, and for most of that time they came and went with the ice. This chapter follows what the sources say about the earliest visitors, the long gaps, the land that is now under the North Sea, and the hunter-gatherers who stayed.
The first visitors
According to Prehistoric Britain, the earliest evidence is of stone tools and footprints at Happisburgh in Norfolk, about 900,000 years old, possibly made by Homo antecessor or Homo erectus. The article says a 2020 study suggests the footprints resemble H. erectus, and that no human fossils were found there. Wikipedia's Happisburgh article gives the flint tools two alternative date ranges, "somewhere between 866,000 to 814,000 years ago or 970,000 to 936,000 years ago", and says the tools were probably left by Homo antecessor hunter-gatherers living on floodplains beside an ancient course of the Thames. It reports the footprints as "more than 800,000 years old" and the oldest human footprints found outside Africa.
| Site | Age (per the article) | What was found |
|---|---|---|
| Happisburgh, Norfolk | about 900,000 years | Stone tools and footprints; no human fossils |
| Pakefield, Suffolk | about 700,000 years | Tools, with animal remains showing a mild, warm climate |
| Boxgrove, West Sussex | about 480,000 years | The oldest human skeletal remains in Britain, possibly Homo heidelbergensis, with refined handaxes and butchered animal remains |
| Swanscombe, Kent | about 400,000 years | Neanderthal fossils (the "early Neanderthal" identification is "suggested") |
| Clacton | about 400,000 years | A spearhead, described as the oldest known wooden weapon |
| Pontnewydd, Wales | about 225,000 years | Neanderthal fossils |
One site is disputed. A 2025 study of Fordwich Pit in Kent proposes handaxes of about 712,000 to 621,000 years ago, but the article says other authors doubt the dating and suggest about 620,000 to 560,000 years ago.
Coming and going with the ice
The article says Britain was repeatedly settled in the warm interglacial periods and abandoned in the cold glacial ones, at least nine times. It notes that the Anglian glaciation (about 480,000 to 430,000 years ago) was thought to have emptied Britain, though the Fordwich finds suggest some visits.
- Neanderthals: the article gives two versions of the gap. The introduction says Britain was unoccupied from about 180,000 to 60,000 years ago, and the Palaeolithic section says only "absent from about 180,000 years ago". It also suggests a possible earlier return around 115,000 to 84,000 years ago at Great Pan Farm. It says Neanderthals are thought to have died out in Britain by about 40,000 years ago.
- Modern humans: they arrived by about 41,000 to 44,000 years ago (Kents Cavern). The Red Lady of Paviland dates to about 34,000 years ago.
- The coldest period: humans probably left again by about 28,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Maximum, and returned around 15,000 years ago.
- The Younger Dryas (about 12,900 to 11,700 years ago): there is no dated evidence of occupation, so Britain may have been abandoned again.
Art and remains from the last Ice Age
The article names three sites from the end of the glacial period:
- Creswell Crags: about 15,700 to 12,800 years ago, with figurative art including a horse's head engraved on a rib.
- Gough's Cave: about 14,700 years ago, with evidence of ritual cannibalism and skull cups.
- Howburn Farm, Biggar: about 14,500 to 14,000 years ago, the earliest known human presence in Scotland.
A peninsula, an island, a peninsula again
The article says that before about 130,000 years ago Britain was a peninsula of Europe, joined by a chalk and clay ridge. The link eroded and Britain became an island in the Last Interglacial, and it reconnected during the last glacial period. Wikipedia's Doggerland article describes the result: a large landmass in the southern North Sea joining Great Britain to northern France, Belgium, the Netherlands, north-west Germany and Jutland. It is named after the Dogger Bank, a remnant upland.
| Question | What the sources say |
|---|---|
| Land | At the Last Glacial Maximum sea levels were about 120 m lower; by about 12,000 BC the area was tundra; in the early Holocene it had lagoons, saltmarshes, rivers and lakes and may have been Europe's most productive hunting and fishing ground (Doggerland) |
| Flooding | Rising seas broke it into islands between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago; Britain was cut off by about 6500 BC; the Dogger Bank stayed an island until at least 5000 BC (Doggerland) |
| Full submergence | Prehistoric Britain gives 6200 BC in its introduction and "largely complete by 5000 BC" in its Mesolithic section |
| Storegga Slide | A tsunami at about 6200 BC; one estimate suggests up to a quarter of Britain's Mesolithic population died; how much it devastated the area, and whether land survived, is disputed |
| How we know | A 1931 trawler catch of peat with a barbed antler point; a 2003 to 2007 seabed survey of about 23,000 km² using seismic data; later coring and sediment DNA |
The Doggerland article also warns that seabed contours are not a reliable guide to the former landscape (the view of Bryony Coles), and gives an alternative to the tsunami story: a burst of Lake Agassiz that raised sea levels over about two years. I did not read further into either argument.
After the ice: the Mesolithic
The Holocene began around 9,700 BC, according to Prehistoric Britain. Temperatures rose and forests replaced the open tundra, so diets shifted toward deer, boar and aurochs. The Mesolithic is dated there from about 9,700 to 4,300 BC.
- Star Carr, North Yorkshire (about 9,300 to 8,500 BC): red deer headdresses, wooden platforms and the Star Carr Pendant (about 9000 BC), described as the oldest Mesolithic art in Britain.
- Howick, Northumberland: huts from about 7800 BC.
- A cold spell around 6200 BC lasted about 150 years.
Cheddar Man
Wikipedia's Cheddar Man article says workmen found the skeleton in December 1903 in Gough's Cave, Somerset, and removed the skull before its position was properly recorded. He lived around 8300 BC and probably died in his early twenties; two direct radiocarbon dates give calibrated ranges of 8540 to 7990 BC and 8470 to 8230 BC. The article calls him the oldest nearly complete human skeleton found in Great Britain.
A 2018 analysis by a Natural History Museum team extracted DNA from the skull, and placed him in the Western hunter-gatherer population. The article says he most likely had intermediate (blue-green) eyes, dark brown or black hair and dark to dark-to-black skin, and it stresses that these are predictions, not measurements: they rest on low sequencing coverage and on associations in modern populations. The skin-colour model's sensitivity for intermediate skin was low (0.26 in the article).
Words to know
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Palaeolithic | The Old Stone Age, the long period of early stone tools |
| Mesolithic | The Middle Stone Age; here about 9,700 to 4,300 BC (Prehistoric Britain) |
| Interglacial / glacial | A warm / a cold stage of the ice ages |
| Hunter-gatherer | A person who lives by hunting animals and gathering wild food, without farming |
| Radiocarbon dating | A way of estimating the age of organic remains; results are given as a range |
| Doggerland | The now-flooded land in the southern North Sea |
✏️ Try It Yourself
Think of the answer first, then click to check.
1. Where is the oldest evidence of people in Britain, and about how old is it?
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Happisburgh in Norfolk, about 900,000 years old (the Happisburgh article gives the flint tools two date ranges, 866,000 to 814,000 or 970,000 to 936,000 years ago).
2. Put in order, oldest first: Boxgrove, Pakefield, Happisburgh, Pontnewydd.
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Happisburgh (about 900,000 years), Pakefield (about 700,000), Boxgrove (about 480,000), Pontnewydd (about 225,000).
3. Why was Britain settled and then abandoned repeatedly?
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People came in the warm interglacial periods and left in the cold glacial ones, at least nine times according to the article.
4. When did modern humans first arrive, and what happened at the Last Glacial Maximum?
Show answer
By about 41,000 to 44,000 years ago (Kents Cavern). Humans probably left by about 28,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum, and returned around 15,000 years ago.
5. What was Doggerland, and how do we know about it?
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A land area in the southern North Sea joining Britain to the continent. We know of it from fishing finds, such as a 1931 trawler catch of peat with an antler point, and from seabed surveys.
6. Two articles disagree on when Doggerland was fully submerged. What are the two dates?
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6200 BC (in the Prehistoric Britain introduction) and "largely complete by 5000 BC" (in its Mesolithic section); the Doggerland article says the Dogger Bank stayed an island until at least 5000 BC.
7. What did the 2018 analysis predict about Cheddar Man, and how firm is it?
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Blue-green eyes, dark hair and dark to dark-to-black skin. They are predictions, not measurements, based on low sequencing coverage and modern associations.
8. Why is "the first Brit" a poor description of Cheddar Man?
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Older remains of modern humans are known from Britain, such as the Red Lady of Paviland, about 34,000 years ago, according to the Prehistoric Britain article.