2200-800 BC Bronze Age

South-west England is a long crooked peninsula surrounded by sea except on the eastern boundary which provides a link to the rest of England. Though isolated overland, it lies on sea routes to southern Ireland, south Wales and north-western France. A series of granite uplands run through the region and are the source of rivers which run north and south before emptying into the large bays on the coastline. During the Bronze Age considerable settlement and agriculture spread up onto the high ground which is today moorland.

Extensive resources of copper, tin and good potting clays are found throughout the region. As copper and tin are used to make bronze, this should have been a highly exploitable commodity for communities in the area during the Bronze Age. Occasional objects found in south-west England come from elsewhere in England and overseas. Gold lunulae and bracelets from Ireland, bronzes from mainland Europe and jet buttons from northern England are evidence that people in south-west England had extensive interaction with relatively distant places.

Despite these contacts however, the creation of finely made distinctive pottery such as Trevisker ware (1800-1200 BC) and certain regional styles of bronze tools suggest that communities in south-west England were united by a sense of regional identity.