Flint tools have been found all over Worcester, but there is little other evidence from the city area until later prehistory. The many flints from Gorse Hill and from the level gravel terraces of St Johns, dating from the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age, show that these areas were at least regularly visited by prehistoric people, and they probably had settlements there, though these have not been found.

Whittington Tump dominates the approach to the city from the south-east and the M5. Archaeologists disagree as to whether the tump (also known as Crookbarrow Hill) is natural or artificial - perhaps a massive burial mound. What is certain, however, is that it has been a focus of attention for thousands of years. The site has never been excavated, but prehistoric flints and Roman coins have been found there.

A burial mound was excavated in north Worcester in the mid-19th century. The ‘Perdiswell Barrow’ was probably originally Neolithic or Bronze Age (a Neolithic arrowhead was found here) but the best known find from the site (though not necessarily from the barrow) was part of a torc or neck collar of Iron Age date. Torcs are usually associated with high-status individuals, and this was a very rare find, made of iron and bronze.

It seems that the Roman town was sited in a place which was already settled. Remains of banks and ditches, probably dating to the late Iron Age, have been found on development sites close to the Cathedral, and it is thought that there was a defended enclosure or fort here covering c. 8 hectares (20 acres). Pottery and boiling stones were also found in this area, indicating occupation, while a horse- burial found underneath the present day Crowngate centre has been radiocarbon dated to the period 150 B.C. - A.D. 43. Across the country, many of these Iron Age defended sites later developed into Roman towns.

This community would have lived within the territory of the Dobunni, whose northern border lies along this stretch of the river Severn, and would no doubt have been subject to one of the much larger Iron Age communities living in the Malvern hill-forts, or around Bredon Hill to the south (opposite the junction between the M5 and the M50).

The Iron Age inhabitants would have made good use of the river for transport of people, goods and materials. However, perhaps more important for the siting of the settlement would have been the location of a ford - the River Severn was tidal past Worcester until the building of locks in the 1840s, and could easily be crossed at low water.