InfoBritain - Travel Through History In The UK :
Southern England
Southern England
South eastern and southern England were the first areas of what is now Britain settled by humans. They came across a land bridge from the continent, probably following migrating herds of animals. Initially settlement was temporary, limited to warm periods between successive ice ages. The oldest early human remains in Britain, dated to 500 000 years ago were found in southern England, at Boxgrove, Sussex. Permanent settlement could only take place at the end of the last Ice Age, about 14000 years ago.
By the time Stonehenge was built Britain had become an island. The climate was warming and about 6500 years ago the land bridge disappeared beneath a rising sea. The formation of the south coast was the formation of Britain. This event is usually presented as the separation of Britain from the continent, and of course in a physical sense this is true. But research seems to indicate that communications between what is now Britain and the continent actually improved after the separation. The historian Norman Davies says: "even with the primitive boats then available, one could paddle or sail from one side of the sleeve to the other more rapidly than one could previously have tramped across the isthmus or, in the intermediary phase, waded through the marshes."(The Isles P9) The eighteenth century poet Alexander Pope expressed this irony beautifully when he said:
The time shall come, when free as seas or wind
Unbounded Thames shall flow for all mankind
When nations enter with each swelling tide,
And sea but join the regions they divide (Windsor Forest 397 - 400)
Beachy Head, East Sussex
Britain's south coast defines the country, and is also the place where Britain came into contact with the rest of the world. History gives the lie to national identity as something fixed and unchanging. An event creating Britain's physical isolation actually created conditions where isolation could be better overcome.
The south of England now became the home of a extensive neolithic civilisation which has left its mark at a number of remarkable sites, such as Stonehenge and Avebury. Around 800BC the Celts began moving into the British Isles, and this migration, combined with new technology allowing the manufacture of iron weapons, seemed to make life in southern Britain more violent. Now the ceremonial earth rings of Stonehenge and Avebury turned into the protective ramparts of hill top forts which dot the landscape in this part of the country, the most impressive being Maiden Castle in Dorset. It was at Maiden Castle that the Celtic people of Britain came up against the next major shift in history, when the Romans invaded in 43AD and defeated the defenders of the castle. The Romans remained for over four hundred years and shadows of their presence can be seen in many places: see for example our pages for the Roman Palace of Fishbourne, near Chichester in West Sussex, Bath, Silchester in Hampshire, and the Corinium Museum, which tells the story of Roman Cirencester.
Following the Roman withdrawal at the beginning of the fifth century, Saxon invaders came into Britain. Within two hundred years the Saxons were themselves being challenged by Scandinavian invaders, who began making serious advances into Britain in the seventh century. Southern England became the battleground between these two peoples. It is during this struggle, in the Saxon kingdom of Wessex, now the south of England, that the beginnings of England can be found. It was here that King Alfred of Wessex, held out against the Danes who at that time ruled the eastern side of the country. On Twelfth Night in January 878 the Vikings attacked the royal Wessex town of Chippenham. Alfred was forced to flee and wage a guerilla war from the swamps of Athelney. By the Spring of 878 Alfred had managed to organise a resistance, and took command of an army that gathered at King Egbert's Stone on the borders of Wiltshire and Somerset. In the battle that followed the Viking chieftain Guthrum was defeated. Perhaps even more significant than the military victory was Alfred's diplomatic moves that followed: he invited Guthrum into his tent, won him over and persuaded him to accept baptism. The resulting alliance gave Alfred, and Anglo Saxon England, breathing space. For the fourteen years following the alliance with Guthrum defences were built. Finally in 890 the Viking attack came but the defences held. An area between the east and west sides of England hardened into a border. The Scandinavian area now became known as the Danelaw.
Though England was divided, the alliance between Alfred and Guthrum gave rise to the idea of a united country. Some coins of the time referred to Alfred as "Rex Anglorum" or "King of the English", a title that would be formally bestowed on his grandson Athelstan when he was crowned in 927. The idea of England had emerged.
Thomas Hardy revived the name Wessex in 1874 to give expression to the historical unity of southern England. When Wessex existed as an entity it was threatened by the Danes, and its identity was correspondingly clear. Today what was once Wessex is just a collection of southern counties in England. It seems that identity is clearest when that identity is most under threat. The strangeness of identity takes us back to that contradiction of Britain becoming an island, at the same time as communications with the rest of the world improved. In Tess Of The D'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy, the writer who revived the name of Wessex, wrote the following passage. It describes the feelings of Tess as she returns home following a rape at the hands of Alec D'Urberville, an event for which she blames herself:
"Walking among the sleeping birds in the hedges, watching the skipping rabbits on the moonlit warren, or standing under a pheasant laden bough, she looked upon herself as a figure of Guilt intruding into the haunts of Innocence. But all the while she was making a distinction where there was no difference. Feeling herself in antagonism she was quite in accord. She had been made to break an accepted social law, but no law known to the environment in which she fancied herself to be such an anomaly." (P108)
Perhaps we continue to live in a world where we are making distinctions where there is no difference. Feeling ourselves in antagonism there is hope that things are quite in accord.
Images of Southern England
Dyrham Park, Gloucestershire
Avebury, Wiltshire
View from the Hardy Monument, Dorset