Little is known of the ancient history of Saltash, but there is some evidence that the area was settled at a very early date. There used to be a 'Longstone', or menhir, at or near the top of the hill where Saltash town now stands, and various flint implements (such as skin-scrapers and arrow-heads) from the period 4,000 - 1,500 BC have been found in fields around the town. As flint is not found locally, there seems to have been at the least some trading across the Tamar, making it likely that there was a local crossing point.

At the narrowest point of the Tamar Estuary, with a natural beach mirrored on the other side of the water and protected at the upstream end by a great rock (called Ashtor) protruding into the estuary, Saltash is a natural crossing point which would have been far more suitable for landing than the areas of mud further upstream, and it is believed that there has indeed been a crossing here since earliest times.

There are no visible signs remaining of a pre-Norman settlement in the vicinity of the crossing, but the steep hillside rising from the river would have been readily defensible and was well supplied with water from various springs, so there may well have been a prehistoric fortification in the area. There was certainly a Roman earthwork a mile east of the crossing on the Devon side, and there seems to have been a Roman road running through the Plymouth area and into Cornwall, so it is likely that there was a ferry across the Tamar during the Romano-British period. If so, there may well have been a small settlement close to the crossing, possibly on the site of the present day Tamar Street, lived in by fishermen and the ferrymen.

Trematon village is one of the earliest local settlements for which we have evidence. Back around the seventh century, Trematon was a Celtic tribal capital, a place of some considerable importance.

In the ninth century Anglo Saxons from Wessex gradually infiltrated the area, and eventually became dominant. They established the Manor of Trematon and attached to it the ancient Passage across the Tamar Estuary.

In the year 997 Danish marauders penetrated far up the Tamar Estuary. Attacking and burning Tavistock and Lydford, they sailed away with considerable booty. However, being intent on plunder, they probably paid little attention to the few simple fishermen's and ferrymen's dwellings on the foreshore here.

Brismar, an important Saxon noble, held the Manor of Trematon during the reigns of Edward the Confessor and Harold, but Saxon rule ended with the Norman Conquest of 1066, and Brian of Brittany became the Lord of the Manor.

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