[2] The village was mentioned in the Cartularium Saxonicum for the year 880 as (æt) Deone, and may have formed part of the inheritance of Aethelweard, youngest son of King Alfred.

Two manors called Duene are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, one in Hampshire and one in Wiltshire, both among the many holdings of Waleran the Hunter.

[4] In the north of the present village, overlooking the river, is a mound around 53m in diameter and up to 2.9m high, which is the remains of a Norman motte castle.

[5] Dean House, which straddles the border with Hampshire, is a Grade II* listed former rectory from the late 17th century, enlarged in the 18th.

From 1941 to 2003, chalk caverns under Dean Hill to the south of the village were used as a Royal Naval Armaments Depot for munitions storage and maintenance.

[9] The northern part of the village, extending south beyond the railway to Moody's Hill, was designated as a Conservation Area in 1990.

In flint with red brick decoration and some Bath stone, it has a nave and apsidal chancel, and at the west end a timber bell-turret below a tiled spire.

[22] Much of the northern half of the parish is woodland, including Bentley Wood which contains a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest.