The small rural parish of Hampnett lies W of the Fosse Way, 16 kilometers SE of Cheltenham and adjoining Northleach. The church consists of a chancel, a nave with a S porch, and a W tower. The 12th-c chancel consists of choir and sanctuary, the latter having a rib vault. The chancel arch is also 12thc, as is the N wall of the nave. The S nave wall was rebuilt in the 15thc, when the S porch and perpendicular W tower were also added. The N nave doorway was rebuilt in the 19thc but has a Romanesque tympanum. The church was restored in 1868 by G.E. Street, when the sanctuary arch and vault were rebuilt and the chancel roof was decorated by the London firm of Bell & Almond. After becoming rector in 1871, William Wiggin transformed the appearance of the church interior by having the rest of it painted with similar patterns and with texts on the walls; Verey (1979, 267) considers that ‘whatever we may think of the result, the courage and motives of the rector are worthy of admiration.’

The manor of Hampnett has its origins in an estate of 10 cassati that Aeldred, Archbishop of York, settled on the monastery at Worcester – possibly in 1061 after buying the estate from Earl Godwin. Roger d'Ivry, who is said to have seized the estate during Bishop Wulfstan's absence from Worcester in the early 1070s, held Hampnett in 1086 when Archbishop Aeldred was said to have held two of its ten hides free of geld by the gift of Edward the Confessor. Roger’s manor had 10 villeins, 11 slaves, 1 bordar and a priest. There is no mention of a church in Domesday Book.

VCH suggests that the original dedication was to St Matthew, but Arnold-Forster states that the Pre-Reformation dedication was to St George.