Aldsworth is a small village in the Cotswolds, 5km NE of Cirencester. The church occupies a sloping site at the W end of the village and consists of a chancel with a S vestry, a nave with a N arcade, N and S porches, and a W tower with a spire. The building was restored in 1842-43, when a clerestorey was added. The N arcade is 12thc., although the aisle may have been rebuilt at a later date.

The Domesday Survey recorded two estates in Aldsworth. The larger, of 11 hides, was held in 1086 by Gloucester Abbey. The other estate, of two hides, was held in 1066 by Balki and in 1086 by Alweard, son of Regenbald. In 1133 Henry I granted this estate, and others formerly held by Regenbald, to Cirencester Abbey. Both abbeys held their estates until the Dissolution. During the medieval period Aldsworth was a chapel dependent on Bibury and was appropriated by Oseney Abbey in 1151 (VCH).

The medieval dedication in uncertain. Although Arnold-Forster listed St Peter’s as a medieval dedication, the VCH referred to ‘the parish church of St Bartholomew, named before 1784 but sometime called St Peter’s from 1745’.

The lack of a quirk to the impost of the E arcade column (pier 1), coupled with the irregularity of the N side, suggests that completion of this column was rushed. Haste might also account for the shape of the E respond capital. Alternatively, it may have been cut back at a later date.

Although the church was a chapel dependent on Bibury, the details of the N arcades in each building, both dated to the 12thc., are different.

Pevsner suggested that part of the N doorway is Norman, but this was not evident to the CRSBI fieldworker.