St Andrew's is a cruciform church with a two-bay aisled nave with clerestory, early 13thc. chancel, crossing of c.1300 and transepts of c.1275 decorated with blind arcading within which Pevsner attributes to masons from St Radegund's Nunnery and St John's Hospital, Cambridge. The crossing tower is Decorated in its upper stages. The nave and chancel have tall ashlar plinth courses and are constructed on stone rubble above. The nave was restored by Bodley (1857) and the chancel by Sir G. G. Scott. The transept is of roughly coursed ashlar and the tower is mortar rendered. 12thc. stones are found reset on the W facade.

In 1086 Histon was one of the 12 demesne manors of the Bishop of Lincoln, assessed at 26½ hides, of which 9 hides and 3 virgates were held from the bishop by Picot of Cambridge. Picot also held rather more than a hide in Histon from Bishop Remigius of Lincoln, but this land had belonged to the Abbot of Ely before the Conquest, and the Hundred witnessed that the Bishop had usurped it from the Abbot. To complicate matters further, the Abbot had another holding in Histon, of 1 hide and 3 virgates. A further virgate and 10 acres were held by Morin from the Count of Mortain.

In 1092 Picot granted the church and ? of the tithes of this and other manors for the foundation of Barnwell Priory. As late as the end of the 16thc. there were still two parish churches in Histon, the other being dedicated to St Etheldreda. This was demolished by Sir Francis Hynde, owner of Madingley Hall, as a supply of building stone. In 1874 some of Sir Fancis Hynde's work at Madingley was demolished, and as it happened that St Andrew's, Histon was under restoration at the time, many fragments originally from St Etheldreda's found their way to St Andrew's. For the fate of the font, however, see Madingley church.