Cliddesden is a village in the N of Hampshire, 3 miles S of Basingstoke and immediately S of the M3 that links Basingstoke and Winchester. Farleigh Road, the main street of the village, performs the same function in a more leisurely manner. The church stands at the SE of the village and is a single-cell building, roofed in one, with a S porch and a bell-cote over the W gable and a vestry on the N side of the chancel. Construction is of flint with ashlar dressings. In 1868-69 the nave was restored for the Earl of Portsmouth In 1889 the church was restored and extended eastwards with a new chancel. There is no chancel arch; the division being marked by a wooden screen of 1890. The only reminder of the 12thc. church is the blocked N nave doorway, reduced to a niche on the interior.

Cliddesden was held by two brothers before the Conquest, and by Ralph from Durand of Gloucester in 1086. It was assessed at 2 hides and there was a church recorded. It descended to Durand's great nephew Miles of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Hereford (d.1143) and thence to Miles's daughter Lucy, married to a FitzHerbert. In 1275 Reginald FitzPeter was holding, and in 1339 Matthew FitzHerbert. Subsequently the overlordahip was held by the town of Basingstoke. As to the Lordship of the Manor, the lords took their name from the manor, or another manor they held in Matson (Gloucs), apparently at random. So in 1252 John de Cliddesden was the Lord, and by 1275 he was succeeded by his son Philip, who called himself de Mattresdone.

The advowson of the church descended with the manor.

The account of the 1889-90 restoration in the Reading Mercury records that it was paid for my Mr W. Bradshaw of Audley's Wood in memory of his late wife, and included the addition of a new chancel and vestry for clergy and choir with space for a new organ. There was also a new stained glass E window by Kempe and a new floor, a new main door and a lych gate for the churchyard. The architects were Hicks and Charlwood of Newcastle-on-Tyne and the builder Mr Musselwhite of Basingstoke.