by BeeE586

This is a wide subject and it is difficult to arrive at any one single event when there are so many contenders. One could argue the opening up of the country by the building of roads, canals and railways; the Reformation and the break with Rome by Henry VIIIth; the invasions be they Roman, Viking, Anglo-Saxon or Norman; the influx of immigrants of many varied nationalities that has occurred over the last few decades and which is still happening today. Was it the Black Death, the Wars of the Roses, the English Civil War or the Industrial Revolution? To my way of thinking it was none of these but occurred many centuries earlier when man first turned from his semi-nomadic life as a hunter-gatherer, became settled in one place and learned the rudiments of plant cultivation and animal husbandry – in other words, to farm. Until this time none of the things that happened in the country afterwards would, or indeed could, have happened.

We retain from schooldays this somewhat romanticised idea of “The Stone Age” when men lived in caves, wore skins, used stone tools and hunted mammoth and bison with flint tipped spears. There is evidence that this may be partly true from remains found in cave systems such as Cheddar, or Creswell and the Peak District in Derbyshire, where both animal and human bones have been unearthed but since no written records survive we can only surmise on the way of life. Climatic changes after the last Ice Age resulted in first a tundra-like landscape, but as the optimum temperature rose this was followed by grasslands where animals could run freely and then by extensive afforestation. It is believed that it was then, about 4000 BC, that this hunter-gatherer lifestyle began slowly to change.

It must have been a harsh life when only the strongest would survive. We deduce that people would be in smallish family groups and forced to live where food, water and shelter could be found – not necessarily in a place of their own choosing – and such sites would be jealously protected from intruders. When the food gave out the group, or the herd moved, they would be forced to find another site, construct another temporary shelter or retreat to a cave and this lifestyle where almost every waking moment was given over to the means of survival there was little opportunity for the development of any art or culture.

It is believed by historians that farming was introduced by incomers from around the Mediterranean where a more benign climate had encouraged this way of life. We know from the Old Testament that grain was grown and flocks of animals kept. However, the change probably took many centuries to become fully established all over the country and it is thought that this did not occur until around 1500 BC. Initially flat, well-drained sites would be chosen, near a river or the sea as water was vital for survival but the changes in sea level over time has meant that little or nothing of these sites survive.

Again, we can only surmise the slow development of civilisation, as we know it today, but consider this. If two or three groups set up home on the same site this would lead to the beginning of community living, the exchange of knowledge and ideas and some social intercourse. When groups were small and scattered inbreeding would be likely; within a community, however small, this may become less likely and from a larger gene pool stronger and healthier generations may have resulted with a corresponding increase in population. If people were to live in harmony some rules would be needed so we see the beginning of law and order, and if those rules were broken some form of justice and punishment We know from archaeological remains that people were probably tortured and murdered – could this have been a form of punishment ? Doubtless a leader would emerge so a hierarchy would develop, and if that leader were chosen the beginnings of democracy and an electoral system. There could well have been disputes between neighbouring sites so some sort of defensive force would be needed and there would have been a probable desire to devise better and more effective weaponry.

Eventually it would become necessary for woodland to be cleared for fresh sites and once begun the rate of clearance would become exponential – more wood for house building and fuel, more land for grazing and the growing of crops. Britain would become known as an attractive place to live with a temperate climate, available land and natural resources such as lead and copper and people would come bringing their own skills to be absorbed into our culture.

Would any of this have happened, would the forests have been cleared, would we have become first an agricultural and then an industrial nation if that first man had not decided to build a permanent home for his family and to settle in one place?