Monyash is a small village about five miles W of Bakewell and the church lies to the E of the village. It was founded in c.1198 but was extensively altered during the centuries. The structure was built of coursed limestone rubble with gritstone dressings and quoins; it consists of a chancel rebuilt in 1884-7 by William Butterfield, a S and a N transept, an aisled nave, a S porch and a W tower. The only Romanesque feature here is the head reset in the later sedilia and piscina.

The Domesday Survey records that in 1066 and in 1086 'Maneis' was part of the royal manor of Bakewell and had two priests. By the end of the 12thc Monyash was under the lordship of Robert de Salocia and Matthew de Eston, who granted it to the church of Bakewell. In exchange of this grant, in 1198 the two lords were allowed to found a chantry chapel in Monyash. The generous donations of the inhabitants contributed to the erection of a grand church, which was constructed 'on a larger scale than if it had been a mere chantry chapel' (Cox 1877, 105).

The piscina and the sedilia were defined by John Charles Cox as of the 'late Norman period or rather the transition from the Norman to the Early English style' (Cox 1877, 108). The reset male head dates to the 12thc.