[2] The village was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Depeduna (deep valley), and became known as Debden at the time of the Napoleonic Wars.

King John later granted the manor to Geoffrey Fitzpeter, 1st Earl of Essex and it descended in that family until becoming Crown land again.

Later owners found Debden Hall too expensive to maintain, and so the house was demolished and part of the estate sold off in 1935.

A flint and stone church is 13th century but with considerable 18th-century restoration and rebuilding after the 1698 fall of the central tower which destroyed the chancel.

The restoration and rebuilding was done by Richard Muilman Trench Chiswell of Debden Hall, whose elaborate tomb in the chancel was designed by John Carter.