The parish of Naunton lies in the Cotswolds, 12 miles E of Cheltenham and 5 miles W of Stow-on-the-Wold. ‘Naunton’ is thought to derive from Niwe Tun, the new farmstead and is now the main settlement in the parish. The village lies on the floor of the River Windrush. Although the church of St Andrew has 12th-c origins, most of the present building dates from a rebuilding of around 1500. It consists of a W tower, five-bay nave with a shorter N aisle and a S porch dated 1878, and a two-bay chancel with a 19thc vestry to the NE. A Saxon cross found under the nave during the rebuilding in 1878 has been reset in the NW wall of the nave and is described in Bryant.

A corbel reset in the E wall of the vestry is the only surviving Romanesque sculpture; however, Glynne reports that until 1878 the S door retained a rounded arch with toothed mouldings dated to the 12thc.

Domesday Book records several manors in the parish. A manor of Naunton held by Aylmer in 1066 was held in 1086 by a nun, Quenild. The larger manor of Naunton held by Turstan in 1066 was held in 1086 by Osbern son of Richard, whose under-tenant was Roger Doyly. The manor passed, with the rest of Osbern's land, by marriage to the Mortimer family of Richards Castle in the early 13thc. Land in Aylworth held as a manor by Alvin in 1066 was, by 1086, divided into two estates, held by Gilbert son of Turold and William Goizenboded. It is suggested that the manor of Herfortin given by Denebeorht, Bishop of Worcester, to the see of Worcester in 822 was Harford manor; in 1066 the manor was held by Alfer and in 1086 by Gilbert son of Turold, from whom it passed, with Aylworth, to the Earls of Gloucester and, after 1347, to the Earls of Stafford.