Pre-Roman and Roman Britain

Abstract

The long and complex history of the British Isles reflects the interaction of man and a very varied natural environment. The British Isles are both part of Europe and yet separated from it by the sea. They have a very varied topography, climate and natural vegetation. We should be careful about projecting the modern environment on to the past: climate and economic factors, even the coastline and water levels, were different. Yet in simple terms the bulk of the west and north of Britain are higher and wetter, their soils poorer and their agriculture pastoral rather than arable: centred on animals not crops. Much of Ireland is like west and north Britain, although there is less high land. Yet there are many exceptions to this description of the British Isles as a result of a complex geological history and of great climatic variations. Thus the north and west contain fertile lowlands such as the central lowlands of Scotland, the vale of York in Yorkshire and the vale of Eden in Cumbria while the south and east contain areas of poor fertility, such as the sandy wastes of the Breckland in Suffolk or the hilly greensand of the Weald in Kent. Despite this, the essential contrast in England is between the colder, hillier north and the warmer, lower south, the wetter west and the drier east. Upland areas such as the Pennines, the backbone of northern England, have not served as centres of political power. For most of English and Scottish history wealth and influence have been disproportionately present in the south and east.