The Cotswold village of Oddington lies 2 miles E of Stow-on-the-Wold in the Evenlode Valley. There is evidence for settlement drift as there are now two villages, Lower and Upper Oddington with the original parish church of St Nicholas sited some distance from Lower Oddington, and even further from Upper Oddington. This separation resulted in the construction of a new church in 1852 between the two villages, with St Nicholas used for funerals and occasional services. St Nicholas is built of rubble masonry with a Cotswold stone roof, and is noteworthy for its medieval wall paintings. The original 12th-c church now forms the S aisle of the building. The doorway to the S aisle is the only surviving Romanesque feature.

Oddington was acquired by St Peter's Abbey, Gloucester, around the time of its foundation in 681. On the grounds of his expenses in rebuilding the abbey, Ealdred, Bishop of Worcester, was allowed by the abbot to take the rents of Oddington for a term, and he continued to do so after his translation to the episcopal see of York in 1061. In 1066 Oddington was still regarded as part of the abbey's demesne, but by 1086 it seems to have become accepted as one of the possessions of the see. Oddington continued to be a subject of the territorial disputes between the abbey and the see until the final settlement of these disputes in 1157 when the abbey ceded Oddington to the see of York.