Bishop Norton is entered in Domesday Book as simply “Nortune” and as belonging to the land holdings of the Bishop of Lincoln; there is no mention of a church here in 1086. Binnall notes the existence of several 12th c. charters which record papal confirmations of Norton to the bishop of Lincoln and in the 13th c. Norton provided an endowment for a prebend at the cathedral. There was definitely a church in Bishop Norton by 1146, as a charter from 6 February 1146 expressly states that the church is not included in the papal confirmations (Registrum Antiquissimum of the Cathedral Church of Lincoln, v. 1, no. 252; no. 255 from 5 June 1163 reiterates this exclusion; see Greenway). According to Pevsner the faculty for the rebuilding of St. Peter is dated 1737. In 1928 the tympanum came to light when the ivy, that apparently had been covering the W tower for some time, was removed.