SEL3053: Analyzing Geordie Lecture 2. North-East England: historical sketch

1. SEL3053: Analyzing GeordieLecture 2. North-East England: historical sketch This lecture sketches the general history of the North East of England as a context for the analysis that follows.

2. SEL3053: Analyzing GeordieLecture 2. North-East England: historical sketch Sketch of British history 1.1 Prehistory The North-East has been inhabited by humans since the end of the last Ice Age (c.10,000 BC) and probably before. Examples of some of the earliest remains are: A house dating from c.7500 BC has been found in Howick in Northumberland. There are extensive crop marks and field boundaries dating from stone-age times in the Milfield Basin. Numerous examples of prehistoric rock art survive. Hill forts

3. SEL3053: Analyzing GeordieLecture 2. North-East England: historical sketch Sketch of British history 1.2 Celts The Celts are are first European culture known to us from more than physical remains, in that Greek and Roman writers of the first century BC and later give reasonably detailed descriptions of them. Celtic culture appeared in central Europe about 400 BC and spread throughout western Europe from then onwards. We know that there were Celts in Britain and Ireland by the first century BC. What is meant by a 'culture'. Characteristics of Celtic culture Celtic language Map of Celtic tribes in Britain

4. SEL3053: Analyzing GeordieLecture 2. North-East England: historical sketch Sketch of British history 1.3 Romans The Romans incorporated Britain into their empire in 43 AD and controlled it until they left about 410 AD. There are remnants of their presence all over the country. Here in the North the main one of Hadrian's Wall and the forts associated with it, which marked the northern boundary of Britannia. Hadrian's Wall Characteristics of Roman rule: infrastructure and administration

5. SEL3053: Analyzing GeordieLecture 2. North-East England: historical sketch Sketch of British history 1.4 Anglo-Saxons The Roman withdrawal from Britain ushered in about two centuries of instability during which population groups from Ireland, Scotland, and those parts of the European continent from which had never been under the control of Rome invaded and settled. The main impetus of invasion and settlement came from the Germanic-speaking peoples of present-day Scandinavia, northern Germany, Holland, and Belgium. Map of invasions Map of Britain c.600 AD Characteristics of Anglo-Saxon culture Anglo-Saxons in the North-East: Bamburgh and Lindisfarne

6. SEL3053: Analyzing GeordieLecture 2. North-East England: historical sketch Sketch of British history 1.5 Vikings Settlers from present-day Scandinavia begin to attack Britain in the late 8th century and continued to do so of and on for the next 200 or so years, with the aim of settling here. Viking culture Map of Viking settlements

7. SEL3053: Analyzing GeordieLecture 2. North-East England: historical sketch Sketch of British history 1.6 Normans The one thing that everyone knows about British history is that Normans from northern France led by William the Conqueror invaded in 1066. William and his successors quickly established control over most of England but not over present-day Wales and Scotland. It was also quite weak in what is now known as the Scottish Borders, including much of present-day Northumberland, where warlords --Scottish, English and Norman-- set themselves up as rulers of their own territories and professed a nominal allegiance to the English crown. These warlords fought among themselves for many centuries; the many castles and fortified farms or 'bastles' and churches in this region testify to this period. What the Normans did for Britain: consolidation of a political, economic, and social structure which, in its essence, was to last until the First World War, and remnants of which are still with us.

8. SEL3053: Analyzing GeordieLecture 2. North-East England: historical sketch Sketch of British history 1.7 The Middle Ages Throughout Europe, the period from about 1100 to about 1500 CE was a time when the instability of the four centuries or so after the end of the Roman Empire gradually came to an end, and many of the institutions with which we are familiar developed, such as kings, aristocracies, nation-states, and capitalist economies. The most obvious remnants of that time are the cathedrals, churches, and castles found throughout the UK.

9. SEL3053: Analyzing GeordieLecture 2. North-East England: historical sketch Sketch of British history 1.8 The Early Modern period From about 1500 CE the political and economic institutions developed during the Middle Ages were consolidated an extended by two major developments: The search for new markets led to voyages of discovery by Europeans and subsequent colonisation of newly-discovered regions by the major European powers. The British Empire began at this time. The rediscovery of the works of the Greek philosopher Aristotle and the influence of Arabic mathematics led to a fundamental reorientation of intellectual life in Europe which we now call the Renaissance. This in turn led to the development of modern science.

10. SEL3053: Analyzing GeordieLecture 2. North-East England: historical sketch Sketch of British history 1.9 The Industrial Revolution Until the mid-eighteenth century Britain was, like the rest of Europe, a primarily agrarian culture. A variety of developments in science and technology ushered in a fundamental change, however, which was to spread quickly throughout Europe and then the rest of the world, and, for good or ill, gave us the world we live in now: the Industrial Revolution. The nature of the Industrial Revolution: application of science to technological production which was commercially exploited. Social consequences: urbanization, deprivation, political radicalism.

11. SEL3053: Analyzing GeordieLecture 2. North-East England: historical sketch Sketch of British history 2.0 The Twentieth Century The twentieth century saw change which, when compared with the prior rate of  human cultural development, has been breathtakingly rapid. Two of the main factors in this change were: Two world wars, which altered the existing political, economic, and social structures of Europe and America, and soon thereafter of the world. Extension of the technological innovations of the Industrial Revolution, largely as a by-product of the two world wars. Information technology, in particular, has been fundamental in facilitating globalization.

12. SEL3053: Analyzing GeordieLecture 2. North-East England: historical sketch 2. Tyneside The Tyneside conurbation, which includes Newcastle, Gateshead, Hebburn, Jarrow, North Shields, and South Shields, has been a major settlement area since at least Roman times and almost certainly before that.

13. SEL3053: Analyzing GeordieLecture 2. North-East England: historical sketch 2. Tyneside In Roman times Newcastle was a Roman town known as Pons Aelius, and substantial remains from that period survive. Hadrian's Wall, for example, runs directly through Newcastle along the West Road, where small sections of it can still be seen, and in Wallsend there is Segedunum Roman fort. Between the 7th and 11th centuries Newcastle largely disappears from the historical record, though we know that it was then called Monkchester and was therefore probably a monastic site.

14. SEL3053: Analyzing GeordieLecture 2. North-East England: historical sketch 2. Tyneside Shortly after the Norman Conquest a Norman fortification was built on the site of the present castle. This does not survive, but the new castle built between 1172 and 1177 , from which Newcastle takes its name, can still be seen and visited. Thereafter Newcastle grew into a large town, forming the seed of the modern city. The development of Newcastle / Gateshead received a major impetus in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the Industrial Revolution caused a population influx from the countryside into the Tyneside region to work in the new industries: coal mining, lead mining, steel production, ship-building, railways. Most of the pre-20th century buildings in the region date from this period, and testify to the sudden increase in wealth that these industries generated.

15. SEL3053: Analyzing GeordieLecture 2. North-East England: historical sketch 2. Tyneside As a major industrial centre, Tyneside prospered in the first half of the 20th century supplying raw materials and weapons for the two world wars. In the aftermath of the Second World War, however, the heavy industries that made Tyneside wealthy and provided mass employment declined on account of competition from the Far East, where labour costs were lower. The 1970s and 1980s were a period of economic decline and high unemployment in the region. Since the late 1980s Tyneside has successfully reinvented itself as an administrative, cultural, and educational centre, though manufacturing in the automotive and, more recently, the alternative energy sectors has seen a strong revival.