The village has been a populated site since prehistory and is mentioned in the Domesday Book. There was most likely a church on the site of St Mary Magdalene in the early 8th century, followed by the Saxon portion of the present building sometime in the ninth and tenth centuries.
It was in medieval times that it became an important centre with the building of a royal hunting lodge.
The village also had the advantage of being a natural fording point and this together with increasing Royal use led to the addition of a bridge in 1250.