It is likely that a church of some capacity has stood on this site since at least the 8th Century The earliest known reference is to be found in Sir Montague Sharpe's edition of "Middlesex in British, Roman and Saxon Times", in which he mentions the church at Cranford as one of those built upon the site of a compita, or 'little chapel', which usually stood at the cross-roads, and where the Romans offered sacrifices to their rural gods twice a year.