The inhabitants of the British Isles have been drinking ale since the Bronze Age, but it was with the arrival of the Roman Empire in its shores in the 1st Century, and the construction of the Roman road networks that the first inns, called tabernae, in which travellers could obtain refreshment began to appear. After the departure of Roman authority in the 5th Century and the fall of the Romano-British kingdoms, the Anglo-Saxons established alehouses that grew out of domestic dwellings, the Anglo-Saxon alewife would put a green bush up on a pole to let people know her brew was ready. These alehouses quickly evolved into meeting houses for the folk to socially congregate, gossip and arrange mutual help within their communities. Herein lies the origin of the modern public house, or "Pub" as it is colloquially called in England. They rapidly spread across the Kingdom, becoming so commonplace that in 965 King Edgar decreed that there should be no more than one alehouse per village.
During what historical epoch did Britons begin drinking ale?
the Bronze Age