Key Stage 2 history · British history

KS2 Anglo-Saxon life: kingdoms, villages and art

Children in Key Stage 2 learn how the Anglo-Saxons settled in Britain, set up kingdoms, lived in farming villages and made beautiful metalwork. The main skill is working out what we know and how we know it: with few written sources, historians rely on archaeology, place names and later writers, and each kind of evidence shows only part of the picture.

Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, villages and art, explained

The curriculum asks schools to teach Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots. Many schools cover Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, place names, village life, and art and culture, but these are suggested examples, not a fixed list. Over the 400s to 600s settlers from across the North Sea formed a number of small kingdoms. Seven of them are often named: Kent, Sussex, Essex, Wessex, East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria. Their borders and strength changed over time, so children are taught that kings fought, made alliances and sometimes ruled more than one kingdom.

Most people lived in small farming villages and worked the land. Houses were usually made of timber, with wattle and daub walls (woven sticks covered in a mixture of clay and straw) and thatched roofs. A leader’s hall was larger, where people gathered to eat, listen to poems and hear news. Families grew barley, wheat and oats, kept sheep, pigs and cattle, and made cloth, pots, tools and jewellery. Slavery was also part of Anglo-Saxon society: some people were enslaved, often after being captured in war or as punishment, and worked for wealthier households. Everyday life was shaped by the seasons and by what the land could provide.

Place names are a clue to settlement. Many English places have Anglo-Saxon names: “-ham” means a homestead or village, “-ton” a farm or settlement, “-ley” a clearing in a wood, “-ford” a river crossing and “-ing” can mean “the people of”. Some Celtic names also survive, especially for rivers and hills. The days of the week come from Anglo-Saxon gods: Tuesday from Tiw, Wednesday from Woden, Thursday from Thunor and Friday from Frige. Many everyday English words, such as “house”, “bread” and “sheep”, also come from the Anglo-Saxons’ language, Old English.

Anglo-Saxon craftspeople produced skilled metalwork, with gold and silver jewellery set with red garnets, and carved crosses and manuscripts. The ship burial at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, probably from the early 600s and discovered in 1939, held a decorated helmet and fine gold objects. The Staffordshire Hoard, found by a metal detectorist in 2009, contained thousands of fragments of gold and silver, mostly from weapons. These finds show that the idea of the “Dark Ages” misleads: this was a time of skill and wealth, even though few written records survive.

Words your child will hear

Kingdom: An area ruled by a king. Anglo-Saxon England began as several kingdoms.
Settlement: A place where a group of people make their homes, such as a village.
Wattle and daub: A wall made of woven sticks (wattle) covered with a sticky mix of clay and straw (daub).
Hoard: A collection of valuable objects buried or hidden, often found much later.
Archaeologist: A person who studies the past by finding and examining objects and buildings.
Runes: The letters used by early Anglo-Saxons, carved into wood, stone and metal.
Source: Anything that gives evidence about the past, such as an object, a building or a written account.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 2 says:

Pupils should be taught about Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots
Pupils should note connections, contrasts and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms.
Pupils should understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

A worked enquiry

What can the name Birmingham tell us about the people who first lived there?

Split the name into parts. “Birmingham” is usually explained as three pieces: “Beorma”, “-ing” and “-ham”.
Say what each part means. Beorma was probably a person’s name, “-ing” means “the people of”, and “-ham” means a homestead or village. Put together, it suggests “the homestead of Beorma’s people”.
Say what this suggests. Place names ending in “-ham” and “-ing” often point to Anglo-Saxon settlers who named the place after a leader or a family.
Test it against other evidence. Place names alone cannot tell us who exactly was living there, or when. Archaeology, such as the remains of timber houses, pots and brooches, can add to the picture.
Notice what is missing. The name tells us nothing about how people lived, what they believed or whether Britons were already living nearby. A good historian says so.

The name Birmingham suggests an Anglo-Saxon settlement, the homestead of the people of a leader called Beorma. This is a useful clue to who named the place, but it is only a clue: we need archaeology and other sources to learn how people lived and who else was there.

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking Anglo-Saxon England was one country with one king from the start

Maps in books often show the whole of England as a single area labelled “Anglo-Saxon”.

What helps: Look at a map of the seven kingdoms and ask why they might compete. Explain that England as one kingdom came later, in the 900s.

Believing the Anglo-Saxons were rough and uneducated

The name “Dark Ages” gives the impression of a primitive time. Finds such as Sutton Hoo and the Staffordshire Hoard show very fine craft work.

What helps: Look at pictures of Anglo-Saxon jewellery and ask what skills were needed to make it. Talk about why gold and garnets were valuable.

Thinking every English place name was given by the Anglo-Saxons

A neat rule about “-ham” and “-ton” is easier to remember than the fact that names were adapted and borrowed from earlier and later peoples.

What helps: Show that many rivers, such as the Thames and the Avon, keep older Celtic names, and that Roman and Viking names exist too. Ask why a name might survive when the people change.

Thinking historians know exactly how Anglo-Saxon people lived

Pictures in books look confident, but they are often a reconstruction from a few post-holes and finds.

What helps: Ask “What is the evidence for this picture?” Children can spot what is fact and what is a guess.

How to help at home

Place-name detective. Look at a map of your area and highlight names with endings such as “-ham”, “-ton”, “-ley” and “-ford”. Guess what the names mean, then check with a book from the library.
Days of the week. Say the days of the week together and talk about which gods they came from. It is a quick way to show your child that Anglo-Saxon words are still in everyday use.
Design a brooch. Using paper or modelling clay, make a circular brooch with a pattern of interlaced lines and coloured stones. Ask your child what the design might have said about the person who wore it.
Evidence or guess? Choose a picture of an Anglo-Saxon village from a book. Ask your child to point at three things that are likely to be known from archaeology and one that is likely to be imagined.

Leads on to

Key Stage 3: Medieval Britain 1066 to 1509
Key Stage 3: Tudors and Stuarts: Britain 1509 to 1745
Key Stage 3: Britain 1745 to 1901: industry and empire
Key Stage 3: Britain and the world, 1901 to today
Key Stage 3: The Holocaust