Isolated in a field, this unusual looking church consists of a nave and a chancel. The coursed, rubble, nave walls may be 13^th century, like the shafted bellcote. The design of the south window in the nave and the font points to renovation work in the 14^th century. In 1876 Charles Kirk, Jr. rebuilt the east end of the nave and chancel at a greater height than the west part of the nave; hence the unusual look of this church. Lewis mentions in 1848 that the church lay “in ruins” which suggests that Kirk’s renovation was a major overhaul. The Romanesque features here are the south doorway of the nave and a loose pier base.

Domesday Book mentions a church in Barlings in 1086 on land owned by Kolsveinn, the lord of Brattleby, Lincolnshire and tenant-in-chief of more than fifty manors in the county. In 1154, when Ralf de Haya, the son of the constable of Lincoln Castle, founded nearby Barlings Abbey (of the Premonstratensian order) he included in the foundation gift the vill and the church of Barlings.

The diminutive nave of the original church suggests that St. Edward’s may have begun as a field chapel for the small hamlet of Barlings. The expressive angle spurs on the column base suggest a 12^th century context; perhaps a rebuilding of the original church into a stone one around the mid-12^th century when the church came into the possession of Barlings Abbey.