The Romans never took control ofP Scotland, which is north of England,
and Scottish tribes came to fight against them in the north of England again
and again. Because of this, in the second century AD, the Romans built
a wall to stop the Scottish tribes coming to England. This wall between
England and Scotland was one hundred and twenty kilometres long, and
was called Hadrian’s Wall.
For English people in towns and cities, life in Roman times was good.
Towns now had clean water and sewers (pipes taking away dirty water),
and there were strong walls around them, so people felt safe. People came
to the towns to buy and sell things, and food became more interesting and
enjoyable. To relax, people could go to special bath houses, where they met
their friends, kept clean and exercised.
But after AD 250, Roman
soldiers began to leave England.
They had to fight in other parts
of the world, and it was too
expensive and difficult for them
to keep England safe. By AD 411,
all the Roman soldiers had left
England. Then the Anglo-Saxons,
from Germany, the Netherlands
and Denmark, began to arrive.
The Anglo-Saxons had come to
England several times before, but
the Romans had always defeated12
them. Now, with the Romans
gone, the English could not win
battles against the Anglo-Saxons,
and many Anglo-Saxons came to
live in England.
The Anglo-Saxons did not
like the Romans’ towns, so
they did not use them, and the
towns stayed empty. The Anglo-
Saxons built their own villages
near rivers or the sea and made