Michael Wood's Story of England

Episode 1

Romans to Normans

60 mins

Host Michael Wood explores the history of England by looking at the evolution of the town of Kibworth and it's inhabitants. Like most places in the England, Kibworth was first recorded in 1086 in the Domesday Book. Prior to that, archeology provides the necessary information. Evidence indicates a village existed in Kibworth as far back as Roman times and even earlier. Essentially, people had lived there for thousands of years. With the departure of the Romans came the Anglo-Saxons, pagans who worshiped the natural world. Christianity was introduced in the early 7th century and the English language became dominant over several centuries. In the late 9th century, the Vikings invaded and DNA tests reveal that many in Kibworth are their descendants. The Norman invasion of 1066 changed the village considerably with the construction of Norman castles and major shifts in land ownership.