Winstone is situated on one of the highest parts of the Cotswolds about 5.5 miles NW of Cirencester. The church and manor house lie to the E of the present village. The church, which is sited on a gentle slope, is built of limestone rubble with a stone roof and consists of a chancel with N vestry, nave with S porch, and W tower. The nave dates from the later 11thc and retains its original N and S doorways and chancel arch. Like a number of other nearby churches, Winstone has no E window. The building was restored by Frederick Sandham Waller in 1876 when the chancel was largely rebuilt. Romanesque sculptural evidence consists in the S and N doorways and in the chancel arch.

In 1086 the manor of 'Winstone' was held by Ansfrid de Cormeilles who had received it on his marriage to a niece of Walter de Lacy. The overlordship of the manor descended with the honor of Cormeilles, passing, at the division of the honour in the early 13thc among the daughters of Walter de Cormeilles, to Godfrey of Craycombe.

William Henry Knowles, Harold and Joan Taylor consider the N doorway to exhibit more Anglo-Saxon features than the S doorway, which they agree exhibits Saxo-Norman features. Knowles contains detailed drawings of both doorways and the chancel arch. The moulding of the imposts on the S doorway and chancel arch match and indicate that they were built in the same building campaign as, doubtless, was also the N doorway. The small carving above the N doorway is considered by Richard Bryant to be late medieval.