Each foreign force that invaded Britain brought a whole new way of life with them. From the Romans to the Saxons and the Vikings to the Norman conquest, these people all created a host of different influences on England, creating more of a cultural melting pot than we may realise.
Many different influxes of foreign immigrants have shaped modern British life – from Jewish businessmen to French Protestant craftsmen fleeing persecution and West Indians leaving their homes in the British Commonwealth to help rebuild England after WWII.
There’s a myriad of almost invisible cultural, religious, institutional and linguistic foreign influences that have ‘infused’ and shaped our ‘Englishness’ over the years. From the Church of England to vindaloo