Ropsley is village about five miles E of Grantham. Situated proudly on a rise of ground in the village, the church is of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings. The earliest part of the structure is the Anglo-Saxon nave with its long and short quoins. The church was renovated in the 11thc, but very little of this phase survives in the chancel and in the nave. The S chancel chapel, the S arcade of the nave, and W tower were built in the 13thc, although the broach spire was added around 1320. The clerestory dates to the end of the 14th or the beginning of the 15thc, whilst the S porch was built in the 1480s. The tower and spire were restored in 1894, the porch in 1903-04, and the nave roof and windows in 1928. Romanesque sculpture consists of the S window of the chancel, the stringcourse below it, and the N arcade of the nave.

The Domesday Survey records a church in 'Ripeslai'. In 1066 Thori, son of Roald, held the manor, and in 1086 it passed to Ivo of Thierceville, Robert of Tosny being tenant in chief. The manor valued £5.

A design element of the N arcade worthy of note is the way in which the height of the respond and pier bases increases from E to W. The sections on the capitals of piers 1 and 2 that have been cut away were probably intended to support some type of beam that spanned bay 2.