Ludgershall is 16 miles NE of Salisbury and the church lies to the N of the village. The neighbouring castle had to be built before 1103 since King Henry I visited it, and the church of St James was erected in the following decades. The building consists of a chancel, a nave with N and S chapels, a S porch, and a W tower. The chancel was rebuilt in the early 13thc and transepts were added in the 14thc. The W tower fell down before 1662 and was rebuilt in 1675. The nave and W tower are Norman in date with a small Norman window and a blocked N door.

In 1066 the Domesday Survey records that Alward held the manor, which passed to Edward of Salisbury in 1086; it had a value of £6.5. The church was granted to Amesbury priory in 1228; it was united with Biddesden church in 1446.

A watercolour made by John Buckler in 1805 (Devizes, Wiltshire Museum) depicts the church prior to the restoration carried out by John Loughborough Pearson in the 1870s.