The village of Great Washbourne is in the Vale of Evesham some 6 miles from Tewkesbury. The church, which is sited on high ground on the main street, consists of a chancel and nave with a 19thc. vestry to the N of the nave. There is a small wooden bell-turret over the W end of the chancel. It is built of rubble masonry with a Cotswold stone roof. The S doorway, the narrow opening to the chancel, and a widely splayed, small single light in the north wall of the nave are all early 12thc. The N doorway on the nave side is also 12thc. but the vestry side, originally the exterior, was remodelled when the vestry was built.

In 1086 three hides in Washbourne belonged to the church of Tewkesbury. Soon after the refoundation of Tewkesbury Abbey in the early 12thc.,the manor of Washbourne was assigned to the maintenance of the monks' table, and the it remained in the abbey's ownership until the Dissolution. During the medieval period Great Washbourne was known as Abbot's Washbourne in order to distinguish it from nearby Little Washbourne. The parish church was built in as a chapel of ease to Beckford, but in 1177 the Rector of Beckford, in an agreement about tithes, released all his rights to Tewkesbury Abbey. As no vicarage was endowed it is assumed that monks from the abbey provided services.

The semi-circular decoration on the lintel is reminiscent of that on a tympanum; perhaps this lintel was originally designed as a tympanum, but the surround for the doorway, which would have covered the edges of the lintel, was never added.