Yahoo News has the article Humans in England May Go Back 700,000 Years.

32 black flint artifacts, found in river sediments in Pakefield, a coastal village 120 miles (190 kilometers) northeast of London, date back 700,000 years and represent the earliest unequivocal evidence of human presence north of the Alps. The artifacts suggest that the early humans did not colonize northern areas of Europe, but merely expanded their migratory patterns there when the weather permitted.

700,000 years ago, England was still connected the European mainland . Rhinoceroses, elephants, saber tooth tigers, lions, hippopotamuses and bears lived in the area at the time.

The earliest traces of human presence in southern Europe are at least 800,000 years old and include materials that were discovered in Atapuerca, Spain.

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