Moreton Pinkney
In the reign of Edward the Confessor one Leuric held the manor of Moreton "freely", i.e. without a feudal overlord. He was dispossessed after the Norman Conquest of England and the Domesday Book of 1086 records that one Geoffrey held the manor of Gilo, bother of Ansculf de Picquigny. "Pinkney" is a corruption of "Picquigny", a village in Picardy. In the 12th century Henry de Pinkeny (sic) held the manor. In both surveys the manor was assessed at one and a half hides.
St Mary the Virgin church
The earliest evidence of Christianity in the parish is a fragment of an Anglo-Saxon stone cross in the churchyard of the Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin. The church itself was built in the 12th century, which is the date of its Norman north door and three-bay northern arcade. The piscina and west tower date from about 1300. St Mary's is a Grade II* listed building.
The Augustinian Canons Ashby Priory had appropriated "the spirituality" of St Mary's by 1254. John Dalderby, Bishop of Lincoln, sanctioned this retrospectively in 1309.
The chancel was rebuilt in 1846 in a Gothic Revival of a 13th-century style.
St Mary's has a ring of six bells. Hugh II Watts, who had foundries in Bedford and Leicester, cast the tenor bell in 1629. The Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast the other five bells in 1996.
St Mary's parish is a member of the Benefice of Culworth with Sulgrave and Thorpe Mandeville and Chipping Warden with Edgcote and Moreton Pinkney.
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