Brimpton is a village in the south of the county, five miles E of Newbury and only a mile from the Hampshire border. The village lies between the rivers Kennet and Enborne, just south of the line of the Roman road from Newbury to Calleva (Silchester). It is clustered around a minor crossroads, with the parish church (St Peter's) in the centre and Brimpton Manor farm and St Leonard's chapel 500 metres to the north. The chapel of St Leonard stands immediately to the E of Brimpton Manor farmhouse, and is a simple rectangular flint building with ashlar quoins and a modern red-tiled roof. The N doorway indicates an origin in the 12thc, but there are additions of the 13thc (N window) and 14thc (E window). The only Romanesque sculpture is on the N doorway.

Two manors were recorded in Brimpton in DS. The first, called Brimpton Manor, was held by Godwine before the Conquest and by Ralph de Mortimer in 1086. It was assessed at 3½ hides before the Conquest but only 2½ hides in 1086. A church was recorded here. The second, later called Shalford Manor was held by Beorhtric from King Edward before the Conquest, when it was assessed at 4½ hides, by and Robert FitzGerald in 1086, when it was assessed at 3½ hides. Another church was recorded here. Ralph de Mortimer's manor of Brimpton passed from him to his son Hugh (d.1181), founder of Wigmore Priory, and then to his son Roger who married Isabel Ferrers and died in 1214. It subsequently followed the descent of the Mortimers of Wigmore and later the Earls of March. It was the second manor, Shalford that housed the chapel of St Leonard. At the death of Robert FitzGerald his lands passed to his nephew Roger and then to Roger's son William de Roumare, who died before 1168 and was succeeded by his grandson of the same name, who died without issue before 1198. The manor was granted by Simon de Ovile, apparently William's tenant, to the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem. They were in possession in 1251 and still in 1275-76, and remained in possession until they were dissolved in 1540, when the land passed to the Crown. The Chapel of St Leonard had a chaplain who was paid a stipend by the Knights Hospitaller to celebrate mass three times a week. In 1338 the Hospitallers' house at Shalford was in bad repair, and it may have been leased to the adjacent manor of Brimpton at this point. Certainly the advowson of the chapel passed to Brimpton. At the Reformation, Brimpton chapel was due for suppression under the Chantries Act, and it was sold. For more information about the litigation that followed the sale, see VCH.

One comparison that should be mentioned is the font from Hampstead Norreys, now in St John's, Stone (Buckinghamshire). This is a far more elaborate piece of work, but its decoration contains variations on the cross form, a good deal of beading, and fishscale used to articulate the bodies of fish. Hampstead Norreys is only 7 miles to the N of Brimpton.