During the Roman occupation and for many years afterwards Dere Street was the main road to Scotland. The fact that it ran through here, and that there was a Roman fort (Vinovium) a mile south at Binchester, suggests that a settlement has existed at Hunwick since Roman times.

There is archaeological evidence of an Anglo Saxon cemetery from early in the sixth century.

Dere Street preceded the very straight B6325 up through Piercebridge to the Roman fort at Binchester, then followed the line of the current road through Hunwick and the site of Helmington Hall to Willington, Lanchester and Corbridge.

A 1959 survey by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments discovered worked stones in the bank of the River Wear below Binchester and concluded they were remnants of stone piers supporting a timber bridge. In identifying the need for a bridge over Hunwick Gill, the survey said: “This gill, 50ft wide and 25ft deep, is sharply riven in the surface of the plateau. It is therefore too steep and narrow to have been negotiated by a zig-zag.”