History of England Northern England, solidified by Hadrian's Wall built in 138 AD, despite temporary forays into Scotland. The Romans and their culture stayed in charge for 350 years. Traces of their presence are ubiquitous throughout England. In the wake of the breakdown of Roman rule in Britain from the middle of the fourth century, present day England was progressively settled by Germanic groups. Collectively known as the "Anglo-Saxons", these were Angles and Saxons from what is now the Danish/German border area and Jutes from the Jutland peninsula. The entire region was referred to as "Hwicce", and settlements throughout the south were called
City Wall and Moat wooden towers. Attackers had to construct bridges from their wooden towers in order to reach the top of the wall, thus exposing themselves to the defenders of the city. Archaeologists have not been able to provide a precise date for the construction of the city wall and its moat, although historical chronicles suggest the 9th century. Both wall and moat were built atop the Phoenician cemetery, and cut across the ruins of the Phoenico-Persian, Hellenistic and Roman residences. In the late 19th century, the city wall and its moat lost their strategic significance. By the early 1900s, the wall had