Black Bourton is a village about eight miles SW of Witney on Black Bourton Brook, a tributary of the River Thames. The church lies to the N of the village and was built of coursed rubble limestone; it consists of an early 12thc chancel altered in the 13thc, a late 12thc nave with N aisle, a 14thc S porch, and a W tower erected on the westernmost sector of the nave in the early 16thc. The building was restored 1866 by Edward George Bruton. Romanesque sculpture is found on the S doorway, the N arcade, and the font.

The Domesday Survey records that in 1066 'Burtone' was held by Thorgot and Ansketil of Graye; in 1086 its lordship passed to Wimund and Payne of Clanfield, being tenants-in-chief Earl William, son of Osbern, and Arnulf of Hesdin. Before 1180 the church - then a daughter of Bampton - was divided between Hugh de Bourtonb and Ralph Murdac, who simultaneously gave their halves to Oseney Abbey.

The three windows in the E chancel wall (one above the other two) now have segmental heads, but Mary Lupton (1903), 38, states that before the Victorian restoration the two lower windows had segmental rear-arches.