Last Updated : 30 Aug 2009

The earliest known settlement within the area of the modern city was during the early Bronze Age, probably between 2000 and 1500 BC. The Calderstones, a group of six irregular sandstone boulders are from this time and bear interesting cup and ring markings. The stones were previously part of a burial chamber within a tumulus of sand but were formed into a circle in 1845.

Ptolomy, in the year 150 AD, referred to the area we now know as Liverpool, as the port of the Satanti. This is undertood to have been a tribe of people who later formed part of a larger Celtic tribe called the Brigantes.

Saint Patrick appears to have had connections with Liverpool, though very little is recorded of his life and there is even disagreement about his place of birth, though most accounts indicate he was born in Scotland. In about the year 432 AD Patrick is believed to have sailed to Ireland and preached in what is now Liverpool before he left.

In 1086, it was recorded in the Domesday Book that at Lytherpool there was a settlement comprising a church, a tower and a few huts.

The first important record for Liverpool as a city is the charter granted by King John in the year 1207. Though there may have been a peasants hut or two, there was no permanent settlement until the king decided to found a new borough in that year.