Cardington is a small village in the Shropshire Hills, 3 miles E of Church Stretton and 10 miles S of Shrewsbury. The church is in the centre of the village, and consists of a 12thc nave and a chancel of c.1300 in one, with a 13thc W tower heightened in the 14thc. There is a S porch dated 1639, and the chancel was restored in 1863, followed by the rest of the building in 1867-69. The church is of sandstone rubble. The nave has two doorways to the N and S; those further W offering evidence that the nave was lengthened late in the 12thc. Of these both E doorways and the W doorway on the N side are blocked.

In 1167 the village of Cardington was given by William FitzAlan to the Knights Templar, whose preceptory in Shropshire was at the manor of Lydley Hayes. The first documented priest was Arnulf in 1185. After the suppression of the Templars in 1308 Cardington and Lydley Hayes were given to the Knights Hospitallers. By 1318 Cardington was in the possession of Edmund FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel.

The nave was built in the early 12thc and lengthened to the W in the late 12thc, adding a new S doorway at the W end and blocking the original one. The early form of the (now blocked) N doorway suggests that this one was moved rather than replaced. The tower was added soon afterwards. The stiff-leaf of the S doorway points to a date c.1200 or a few years later.