It is 1 mile (1.6 km) to the north-east of the market town of Bawtry on the A614 road, and adjacent to the hamlet of Newington in Nottinghamshire, close to the River Idle.

[1] The name Austerfield was first recorded in 715 and derives from the Old English Ouestraefelda (eowestre), which means open land with a sheepfold.

[3][4] It was mentioned in the Domesday Book as belonging to Robert of Mortain, and having 27 villages, 40 freemen, a priest and a church.

[7] Austerfield contains the 11th-century church of St Helena, which was built in 1080 by John de Builli, using stone from quarries at Roche Abbey.

[9] The nave has a sheela na gig, a rare type of quasi-erotic stone carving of a female figure sometimes found in Norman churches.