Crich is a village about one mile E of Whatstandwell and two miles N of Ambergate. The church lies to the N of the village and consists of a Ashlar and coursed rubble gritstone structure with quoins built around 1135; to the original chancel and nave the S porch, the S and N aisle and the W tower were added in the 14thc, whilst the vestry was added in the 20thc. The Romanesque surviving sculpture is found on the nave N arcade and on the font situated at the W end of the S aisle.

The Domesday Survey records that in 1066 'Crice' was held by the brothers Leofnoth and Leofric; in 1086 it passed under the lordship of Ralph Fitz-Hubert, whose principal residence was on this manor. To him succeeded his son, Ealph Fitzralph, first Baron of Orioh, who in the time of Henry I gave certain lands in Hartshorn to the Knights Hospitallers. His son, Hubert Fitzralph, was a great benefactor to Darley Abbey, and in the year 1175 confirmed his church of Orich to that establishment. But it seems to have been previously given to the Abbey by Ralph Fitzralph, for the church of Orich is mentioned by Eobert de Ferrers as part of his gift to the canons at the time when he removed them from Derby and founded the Abbey of Darley, which was early in the reign of Henry II, for Robert de Ferrers died in 1162. There is some contradiction between the different charters as to the actual donor of the church of Crich, but it is most probable that the Ferrers for a time exercised some nearly nominal control over Orich manor as chief lords, and that the donation required their consent.