Earliest Occupation - Brycgstow

The Bristol area has been settled since the Palaeolithic era, as evidenced by 60,000 year old archaeological finds at Shirehampton and St Annes.

There are Iron Age hill forts near the city at Leigh Woods, Clifton Down and on Kingsweston Hill, plus evidence of Iron Age farmsteads throughout Bristol.

Abona, a Roman era settlement at what is now Sea Mills, connected the town to Bath via a Roman road and likely served as a port linking Roman England to Wales. The present-day Inns Court was the site of another Roman settlement, while other smaller settlements, isolated villas and minor forts also existed throughout the area.

Some time before the early 11th century, the town of Bristol (originally named 'Brycgstow', meaning "place by the bridge" in Old English) was established on a low hill between the Rivers Frome and Avon, adjacent to the original Bristol Bridge.