Stanford Dingley is an attractive village on the river Pang, 9 miles west of Reading, consisting of a few houses and a pub on a junction of minor roads. The church is at the north end of the village. It is built of flint with a weatherboarded bell-turret topped by a pyramidal roof. A N aisle with an arcade of two unequal bays was added to the original aisleless church in the late 12thc. The same was done on the S side early in the 13thc., and at the same time or shortly afterwards the N aisle was extended W by one bay and a new chancel built, to be replaced c.1768 by the present one of brick. 12thc. sculpture is found on the piers of the N nave arcade.

There was no mention of a church in 1086, when the manor was held by Gilbert from William son of Ansculf. The overlordship passed to William's daughter Beatrice, married to Fulk Paynel, and thence to their son Ralph, to his son Gervaise, and to Gervaise's sister Avice, married to John de Somery. Their son Roger was the overlord at his death in 1273. Meanwhile the tenancy previously held by Gilbert was with William de Stanford in 1224-25. The earliest reference to a church here is in 1282, when the advowson alternated between Oliver de Punchardon and Reginald son of Peter.

The marked inequality of the two bays suggests separate liturgical functions the E bay may have been a chapel. The lightly scored grooves on several of the capitals and the annular hole carved in the NE capital of pier 2 probably indicate that further carving was intended.