The village is on the route of the Roman road from Brough to Malton, where a valley opens from the E in the Wolds escarpment; the church stands on the N side of the valley. It has chancel, nave with N and S porches, and octagonal Perpendicular W tower. ‘Apart from the tower the whole church was rebuilt, using a few old features, in 1869-71 by J. B. and W. Atkinson of York’ (Butler 2007, 354, note; citing Borthwick Institute Fac. 1868/13). Inside, the tower arch has a few voussoirs with chevron mouldings, and higher in the wall is a large double scallop capital; all reset.

In 1066, fifteen carucates were held by Norman son of Malcolumbe. The estate passed to William Malet and then to his son Robert, but by 1086 it belonged to Gilbert Tison, and was held of him by three knights, in the twelfth century by the Anlaby and Sancton families. It was granted to Watton priory probably in the later thirteenth century (VCHER IV 1979, 156).

Remains of a large Anglo-Saxon cemetery were found W of the church (Pevsner and Neave 1995, 667). There was a church at Sancton in 1086 (VCH II, 1912, 273). After 1250 the medieties were consolidated and in 1310 the church was appropriated to Watton priory.

Sir Stephen Glynne visited in 1863, before the Victorian rebuilding. He noted the exterior was ‘much patched and mutilated’ and that ‘the priests’ [sic] door is obtuse – Early English on imposts’ (Butler 2007, 354). In 1869-71, ‘the church was rebuilt in the E.E. style… but old evidence was used (copied rather than actually used) in the lancets and the priest’s doorway of the chancel’ (Pevsner and Neave 1995, 667); the rebuilt doorway is round-headed.

The double scallop capital is an unusually large one and may have belonged to a previous tower arch or a chancel arch; Glynne reported the absence of a chancel arch (Butler 2007, 354) and it is not known if there had been an earlier tower.