Evidence of prehistoric inhabitants across this high ground are scarce, but the Mesolithic tools that have been found at Weston Shore, on the Itchen estuary suggest their presence when taken together with other evidence.
Mesolithic flints have also been discovered in the excavations at Roman Clausentum, along with a coin of the Durotriges – the local British tribe, while Bronze age implements have also been found in the area, so that ancient people are likely to have been crossing this landscape to access fish, shellfish, and birds along the shores of the river, as well as foraging for nuts, fruit and edible herbs, in the area that included the later Merry Oak estate, long before the Romans came to the area.
Indeed, the early construction of a landward defence (the fosse) across the peninsula marking the bend in the river below the eastern high lands, suggests the presence of local native people, who may have been perceived as a potential threat to the Roman settlement and its colonising enterprises, or at least that the Roman garrison intended to stamp their presence on the landscape and its population, as well as controlling the river.