"The earliest inhabitants probably lived close to the banks of the Severn, to the south of the present-day village, augmenting any agricultural activity with hunting wild fowl in the Severnside marshes and fishing in the river itself. The remains of a Neolithic long barrow overlooking the Severn at Heston Brake, near Black Rock Portskewett, indicate the importance of the area at that time.

There was considerable activity in the area during the Bronze Age. Recent excavations near the Nedern Brook in Caldicot Castle Country Park revealed a plank from a Bronze Age boat and complex wooden structures in the former river bed. The boat almost certainly plied its trade across the Severn with the farmers and traders of North Somerset. "