AD 43 - About AD 410Roman Bathing and Heating

Keeping clean was important for the Romans, and towns and forts had underground drains to take away dirty water and sewage. Most Roman forts like Chesters on Hadrian's Wall, towns like Wroxeter and villas like Lullingstone had purpose-built bath houses, which also had hot-air central heating.

1060sNormans Build Large Network of Castles

After the Battle of Hastings William the Conqueror secured power by building motte and bailey castles up and down the country. Most were assembled extremely quickly using earth and wood, but impressive stone towers were also built. The castles enabled the new Norman lords to control the local area and also acted as visible statements of power.

1400sSophisticated Priory Plumbing

The monks of Mount Grace Priory benefited from an elaborate water system which provided them with drinking water and a standard of sanitation unfamiliar to most lay people at the time.

A spring near the monastery supplied water via a lead pipe to a water tower in the cloister. From here, a sophisticate network of pipes carried the water to each of the monk's cells.

1540sHenry VIII Builds English Coastal Forts

Henry VIII's chain of new gun forts along the south and east coasts were his response to the threat of invasion after his break with Rome. Though soon superseded, the design of forts like Deal, Walmer and Pendennis was state-of-the-art for its day - their squat, rounded towers were designed for maximum offensive and defensive firepower.

1687Newton Publishes his Law of Motion

Sir Isaac Newton changed the way we understand the universe. His revolutionary theories on motion and gravity published in Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica ('Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy') proved that the movements of comets, tides and objects on earth (including apples!) could all be accounted for by the same principles of gravity.

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1709An Engineering Revolution

Ironmaster, Abraham Darby discovered he could use coke rather than charcoal to fuel furnaces. This more economic and efficient method enabled the mass production of cast iron for the first time. It changed the face of industry and engineering forever.

1858 - 1875Bazalgette Builds London Sewage System

London's 'Great Stink' of 1858 prompted one of the most ambitious engineering projects in Victorian Britain. To combat the stench and frequent outbreaks of cholera in the city, civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette designed and built an extensive new sewage system with over 80 miles of sewers. His system remains in full use today.

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1859Darwin's Theory of Evolution

It was whilst living at Down House that Darwin developed his theory of evolution and published the groundbreaking On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.

Considered the foundation of evolution biology, this work fundamentally changed the way we understand the world and its diversity of life forms.

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1940sTuring Develops Early Computing Machine

Alan Turing was instrumental in developing the Automatic Computing Engine, one of the world's very first digital computers. A century earlier Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace had developed a mechanical and programmable computer but Turing's machine was capable of storing programs in its memory, meaning it could perform almost any task.

Image: © National Portrait Gallery, London