When was the Iron Age?

The Iron Age in Britain lasted from about 700 BC to the Roman invasion of AD 43. It is so called because it was the time when people began to make things out of a metal called iron. Unlike bronze which is poured, iron is worked into shape by repeatedly heating and hammering against an anvil, a process known as smithing. It is also much harder than bronze and keeps a cutting edge for longer. It was used to make: ploughs to farm their fields better and grow more crops; armour like shields and helmets to help protect them better in battles than the older bronze ones could; coins to help buy and sell their crops and iron tools.