 When researching my last video on how Vikings actually looked, I came across a really interesting working paper from Oxford University. They looked at the height of English men over a span of 2,000 years, through analysing skeleton remains. In order to establish average height, the authors used skeletons from men filmed all over England in different archaeological sites, men between 21 and 49, and analysed the size of their femurs, or thigh bones, and then extrapolated average height from there. One fascinating aspect of this study is that the height of men increased in the land we call England today during the Roman occupation, which ended in 410 AD, with men growing from 167 centimetres to 170 centimetres during this time, or 5'5". The researchers noted that the rise in average heights coincided with the Romans introducing a more improved water supply and sanitation system, and that diets also became more varied around this time. After the Romans left Britain in 410 AD, there was not an immediate drop in heights. This was not seen until around 600 AD. The paper highlights previous research suggesting that health may have deteriorated when populations moved out of the towns and cities set up by the Romans, abandoning their more hygienic water supplies and waste disposal systems. Plague and pestilence then became common, and infectious diseases are known to have increased at this time, with archaeological evidence also suggesting that diets were inadequate. Average heights then started to increase again after the Norman conquest of 1066 By the end of the early medieval period, heights had increased to 172 centimetres, increasing to 173 centimetres in the 1100s, edging closer to heights achieved at the start of the 20th century. After 1200, heights started to decline, and archaeological evidence shows that at this time, the rural populations were decreasing, farmland had become degraded, and there were shortages of crop seeds. It also notes that other research has suggested temperatures turned colder over the century, with weather becoming far more challengeable until the early 1300s. The early 1300s started with the Great Famine, 1315 to 1317, which may have exaggerated the decline in average heights, but the paper says men had started getting shorter several decades before. After the Black Death of 1348 to 1350, average heights grew, with the paper noting that this coincided with a boost in agricultural production. From 1400 to the early 1650s, mean height reached 173 to 174 centimetres. The early years of the 1600s were unusually healthy, and the paper notes that the introduction of poor laws may have contributed to better health for poorer sections of society. Heights then fell after 1650, falling to around 169 centimetres in the late 1600s. A decline that continued until the early 1800s says the study. The nature of work had changed after 1650, and manual labour became more common, and the toll on the body thus became more demanding. The authors note that during the Industrial Revolution, the demands of workers were much greater than in medieval times. The increasing number of working days, coupled with poorer working conditions, could be why average height went down even though wages grew after 1650. But what about closer to today? Well the Office for National Statistics done a study in around 2010, and it showed that the average man in England was around 5 foot 9 inches, or around 175 centimetres, 175.3 to be exact. Thanks for watching, please let me know your thoughts in the comments below. You can support this work through Patreon, buymeacoffee.com, or donate through PayPal, all the links will be in the description below. Thanks again for watching, and I'll see you next time.