England by Rachel Bladon
A new strand of readers focusing on countries and culture, and include chapters on history, traditions, daily life, cities, nature and sport. This title provides an informative and entertaining overview of English history, culture, traditions and sport, and the sights and people that have made this part of the United Kingdom famous. CD included.
Back in England's oldest times, people lived in big groups called tribes. They were farmers – they grew their food, and kept animals for meat and eggs. They lived in villages, in wooden or mud houses, and there was often fighting between the different tribes. Life was simple but dangerous.
Then in AD 43, forty thousand Roman soldiers invaded England from the area of Europe that is now Italy. The Roman army was very well-organized and had good weapons. The soldiers built a wall around themselves every night so they were safe. They moved across the country, fighting and winning battles against the different tribes, and after four years they controlled the south of England.
The Romans had to fight for many years before they controlled all of England. They made many changes in the country, such as building towns and cities, and good roads. They brought a new language to England – Latin – and made laws, so people knew what they could and could not do. The religion of Christianity came to England in Roman times too.
The Romans never took control of 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 kilometers 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 defeated 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…