They used to be known as the "Beaker Folk" from their distinctive pottery, and credited with migration from the west of the Continent around the time of Stonehenge's construction, giving way to a Celtic-speaking population around the 6th century BC.

But more recent interpretations are more likely to see the "Bell Beaker culture" as a phase of a population that may itself not have changed, remaining in place throughout while successively absorbing smaller admixtures and cultural and linguistic innovations from the mainland rather than undergoing substantial replacement. So they may have been the original farmers, and may still be around in very large numbers.