North Stoke, written as 'Stoches' in Domesday, was held by Miles Crispin in 1086. It was a very large village of 43 households, taxed at 10 geld units and worth £15. No church is recorded but a settlement of this size and value is likely to have had one and some stone fragments kept in a box in the vestry of the current church are thought to belong to a Saxon pillar piscina. The Crispins were barons of Bec in Normandy and seem to have given this early church to the abbey there as it was subsequently known as St Mary of Bec. Henry II held the living in the 12thc and Henry III later gave it to his brother, Richard, Earl of Cornwall. The present church appears to date from the time of of Robert de Esthall who was appointed priest in 1237, the font and sundial being all that remain of an earlier building.