Stanton Prior is little more than a tiny hamlet comprising a manor house, a farm and a church. Although only less than a mile from Marksbury on the main A39 between Wells and Bath, it is remote. At about 100m above the sea level, it lies in a valley between hills rising to about 170m (geologically speaking, on White and Blue Lias Limestone between Inferior Oolite Limestone). Historically, it will be seen from Domesday Book entry that the medieval affiliation of Stanton Prior was with Bath Abbey rather than with Keynsham Abbey. The former priory was 200m E of the church (at ST 680 627).
The parish incorporates the Iron-Age enclosures of Stantonbury and Winsbury Camps and (skirting the N edge of Stantonbury Camp, one of a line of forts on the dyke, to the N of the church) a fragment of the Wansdyke — probable boundary between Mercia and Wessex.
The church has a 12th-13thc origin, but is mainly a 15th-c building and was heavily restored in 1860. The font is Romanesque; there is also a Romanesque scratch-dial and a cross on the chancel wall.
