Travelling around England is in many senses a journey back in time. On all sides, and sometimes even under the road or footpath itself, there are fragments of the ancient past side by side with the clutter of the modern world. Medieval villages, castles, ancient churches, and Roman villas are commonplace and take us back to the time of Christ. Far older, yet equally abundant, are the barrows, hillforts, stone circles, camps, standing stones, trackways, and other relics of prehistoric times that have survived for several thousand years.

This Guide is all about these ancient remains: the prehistoric, Roman, and medieval sites which date from the time between the first appearance of people in what we now call England during the last Ice Age and the end of medieval times around 1600 AD.