Ashley is a hamlet in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, 8 miles W of Winchester and 2.6 miles SE of Stockbridge, the nearest town. The church stands near the site of Gains Castle in the woods to the S. This was built by Henry of Blois in 1138 and slighted after the accession of Henry II. Little survives on the ground. The church is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, and is built of flint rubble, rendered except for the E facade. It consists of a single nave with a S porch and a double bell-opening in the W gable; and a long chancel separated by a chancel arch flanked by round-headed openings, perhaps provided to allow a better view of the eucharist. The 12thc date is confirmed by round-headed lancets at the E end of the N and S chancel walls, a 12thc S nave doorway and 2 round headed lancets in the N and S nave walls. The chancel E window was replaced in the 14thc with a square-headed 3 light window, and in the 15thc., lateral windows were added at its W end. The S doorway is protected by a brick and stone porch dated 1701. The church was restored in 1858 and 1895. Romanesque features described here are the S nave doorway, chancel arch and a Purbeck font.

Ashley is not mentioned by name in the Domesday Survey, but its later manorial history suggests that it was included in William de Eu's and Waleran the Huntsman's holdings in King's Somborne. By 1200 the manor was held by William Briwere the elder and passed to his son William who died without issue in 1233. Ashley was assigned in that year to William Percy, married to William Briwere's sister Joan. Later history of the manor will be found in Victoria County History (see bibliography).

The church was given to Mottisfont Priory by William Briwere, a gift confirmed in 1204 and 1227, and in 1254 it was appropriated by the priory, giving the convent the right to present the vicars.

In 1976 the parish, faced with a larger repair bill than they could afford, eventually and afer long deliberation vested the church in the Redundant Churches Fund (now the Churches Conservation Trust).

The dimensions of the chancel arch and the doorway suggest an early date, perhaps even in the late-11thc., for the first stages of the building, and the evidence for later chamfering and the addition of the squints to either side of the chancel arch point to modifications later in the 12thc. The List Description agrees that it is an early 12thc building and the account in VCH suggests the first quarter of the 12thc. None of this matches Vigar's interpretation, as he suggests that the church was built to serve William Briwere's castle dated by a licence to crenellate in 1200.