The Romans built a villa and an industrial site served by the river. Wye means "heathen temple." The first Christian church is thought to have been on the hill above the ford, maybe originally pagan.

In Saxon times Wye was a royal manor. Its lands went as far as Hawkhurst. The king regularly held court at Wye. After the Norman Conquest the manor was gifted to the Abbey of Battle by King William I. Wye had a tile works and the Abbey always needed tiles. The church of St. Gregory received an extra dedication to St. Martin of Tour, William’s favourite saint.

The buildings in the little streets although Georgian in their appearance are mostly much older. Behind their facades most date back to medieval times. Wye was a market town. Its market hall was situated near to the present bus shelter outside the church.

In 1447 Cardinal Kempe, Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of England founded a College for Secular Priests to pray for his ancestors. He was born at Olantigh, a mansion one mile to the north of Wye. The college provided a school. Its building, the Latin School, as well as the old college buildings are still standing.

After the Reformation the College fell into secular hands and various owners altered the buildings. In 1894 it became the South Eastern Agricultural College and after World War II the Agricultural College of London University. New building at the College continues to this day.

Cardinal Kempe enlarged the church by the addition of a cloister and transepts to form a cruciform church. In 1572 lightning struck the wooden steeple and caused considerable damage. Then in 1686 the central tower collapsed demolishing parts of the chancel and transepts. The new chancel is much smaller and is Georgian in appearance.

By the nineteenth century Wye was in decline. Its main industry was still agriculture, which by then did not employ so many people. The market had gone; the new turnpike road bypassed Wye; the railway had arrived in Ashford and travel was no longer along the higher ground of The North Downs.

The Agricultural College came at the end of the century and Wye until recently was very much in the forefront of agricultural and countryside matters throughout the world. Since its merger with Imperial College, London the academic emphasis has shifted to business skills. In December 2005 Imperial announced its plans for a £1 billion development for a scientific research centre in Wye. The implications for the village remain unclear and there is hot debate in the village over its likely merits.