Now within the civil parish of Hemington, the tiny hamlet of Hardington Bampfylde (not to be confused with Hardington Mandeville in South Somerset), hardly more than church and farm, lies in a valley in gently undulating country between Frome and Radstock, 3½ mls NW of Frome. Like Hemington, a mile to the NW, Hardington lies below and within the angle formed by two main roads: the A362 between Frome and Radstock, and the A366 to Trowbridge in Wiltshire via Norton St Philip. Vestiges of a more considerable former context for the present severely truncated settlement are the Domesday entry, the evidence for a deerpark to the NW, between Hardington and Hemington, focused on Hardington Hill (see Somerset Historic Environment Record 23662), a shrunken village (ibid., 23660), a manor house site with accessories (23661, 23664/5) and a moated site which may indicate an earlier manor house (23666). The church and farm lie on a terrace at about 100m above OD; to the N is the slope up Hemington Hill (155m above OD at the summit), to the S is a short steeper drop to Hardington Brook.

St Mary's is a building of coursed rubble and ashlar dating from the 11thc to the 15thc. It consists of a nave, chancel and W tower and is externally mostly in the Decorated style. There is some dispute over the date of the chancel arch, which may be 12thc and is thus included here. The font is certainly 12thc.

The manor was held by three thegns in 1066 and by Ralph Rufus from the Bishop of Coutances in 1086. It was assessed at 4 hides and in addition to the ploughland contained 36 acres of meadow and 12 acres of underwood. One hide of this manor belonged to the manor of Hemington, and was held by Baldwin.

By the time of Henry III the manor was held by William and Alexander de Hardington, and in 1315/16 it was held by the heirs of John le Sure (Collinson (1791).

The list description has the chancel arch as 'probably 12thc', while Pevsner asserts that it is not medieval. Even if it is neo-Norman it may reproduce the original form.