<P> The earliest evidence of human occupation around 900,000 years ago is at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast , with stone tools and footprints probably made by Homo antecessor . The oldest human fossils , around 500,000 years old , are of Homo heidelbergensis at Boxgrove in Sussex . Until this time Britain was permanently connected to the Continent by a chalk ridge between south - east England and north - east France called the Weald - Artois Anticline , but during the Anglian Glaciation around 425,000 years ago a megaflood broke through the ridge , creating the English Channel , and after that Britain became an island when sea levels rose during interglacials . Fossils of very early Neanderthals dating to around 400,000 years ago have been found at Swanscombe in Kent , and of classic Neanderthals about 225,000 years old at Pontnewydd in North Wales . Britain was unoccupied by humans between 180,000 and 60,000 years ago , when Neanderthals returned . By 40,000 years ago they had become extinct and modern humans had reached Britain . But even their occupations were brief and intermittent due to a climate which swung between low temperatures with a tundra habitat and severe ice ages which made Britain uninhabitable for long periods . The last of these , the Younger Dryas , ended around 11,700 years ago , and since then Britain has been continuously occupied . </P>
<P> The earliest evidence of human occupation around 900,000 years ago is at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast , with stone tools and footprints probably made by Homo antecessor . The oldest human fossils , around 500,000 years old , are of Homo heidelbergensis at Boxgrove in Sussex . Until this time Britain was permanently connected to the Continent by a chalk ridge between south - east England and north - east France called the Weald - Artois Anticline , but during the Anglian Glaciation around 425,000 years ago a megaflood broke through the ridge , creating the English Channel , and after that Britain became an island when sea levels rose during interglacials . Fossils of very early Neanderthals dating to around 400,000 years ago have been found at Swanscombe in Kent , and of classic Neanderthals about 225,000 years old at Pontnewydd in North Wales . Britain was unoccupied by humans between 180,000 and 60,000 years ago , when Neanderthals returned . By 40,000 years ago they had become extinct and modern humans had reached Britain . But even their occupations were brief and intermittent due to a climate which swung between low temperatures with a tundra habitat and severe ice ages which made Britain uninhabitable for long periods . The last of these , the Younger Dryas , ended around 11,700 years ago , and since then Britain has been continuously occupied . </P>
when did the first man and woman come to britain
when did the first man and woman come to britain
40,000 years ago
40,000 years ago