PRE 1066 - BRITONS ROMANS SAXONS AND VIKING
The Antonine Wall was constructed in the AD 140s on the orders of the Emperor Antoninus Pius; for a generation it was the north-western frontier of the Roman Empire. Running for 60 km from modern Old Kilpatrick on the north side of the River Clyde to Bo'ness on the Firth of Forth. In 2008 the Antonine Wall was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Antonine Wall World Heritage Site will form part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site, which includes Hadrian's Wall in England and the German Limes across Southern Germany..
For more than 300 years, Chester was the site of a Roman legionary fortress. Established in the mid-70sAD, the fortress was known as Deva, after the Celtic name for the river Dee on which it was located. About AD 100, an amphitheatre was built immediately outside the south-eastern corner of the fortress defenses. The Chester amphitheatre is one of the largest known from Roman Britain. Today almost half of the structure, including the entrances. There is also a museum offering the Roman Soldier Experience.
In AD 75, the Romans built a fortress at Caerleon that would guard the region for over 200 years. Caerleon was one of only three permanent fortresses in Roman Britain. The National Roman Legion Museum lies inside what remains of the fortress. The ruins include the most complete amphitheatre in Britain and the only remains of a Roman Legionary barracks on view anywhere in Europe.
An army of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex under Alfred the Great defeated the Great Heathen Army led by Guthrum on a date between 6 and 12 May AD 878. A scholarly consensus identified its location with the present-day Edington in Wiltshire. It was known as the Battle of Ethandun, a name which continues to be used to refer to this battle..
Maiden Castle is a large iron age earthworks . Based on the discovery of a group of bodies in the Late Iron Age formal cemetery that had met a violent death, archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler created a vivid story of the fall of Maiden Castle to Roman forces. He believed a legion wreaked destruction on the site, butchering men, women and children, before setting fire to the site and slighting its defences.
Roman Colchester is one of the oldest military bases in the UK. It was burned to the ground surign the Boudicaa Revolt of AD 60. Colchester Castle is built on the site of the Roman temple,with traces of damage which are consistent with it being burned..
Hadrian's Wall is an epic
World Heritage Site, stretching 73 miles from sea to sea across
some of the wildest and most dramatic country in England.
There are over 20 different sites on the wall including
several forts, such as Housteads, and Vindolanda..
During the reign of Aethelred the Unready. Earl Byrhtnoth and his
thegns led the English against a Viking invasion. The battle ended
in an Anglo-Saxon defeat. An account of the battle, embellished
with many speeches attributed to the warriors and with other
details, is related in an Old English poem which is usually named
The Battle of Maldon. A modern embroidery created for the
millennium celebration in 1991 and, in part, depicting the battle,
can be seen at the Maeldune Centre in Maldon.
Richborough is one of the most important Roman sites in Britain.
One of the landing places of the Roman army in AD43, Rutupiae
Portus, went on to become one of the main supply bases for the
Roman troops. As conquest over the British became certain, the base
was turned into a town with a triumphal, monumental arch
celebrating the empire's military success. Today, you can see the
remains of this arch, the large defensive ditches surrounding the
fort and the remains of the old store rooms.
The Battle of the Medway was probably the larghest battle to take
place on British soil. It took place in 43 AD on the River
Medway in the lands of the Iron Age tribe of the Cantiaci, now the
English county of Kent. It was an early battle in the Claudian
invasion of Britain, led by Aulus Plautius. Four Roman
Legions and auxliaries took on a force of Britons. The
battlefield is subject to speculation but can be interpreted with
the help of a guide