This name was taken by Margaret Gelling and Victor Watts as an Old English compound of bana 'slayer' (in its genitive singular form banan) and wielle 'well, fountain, spring', thus meaning something like 'murderer's stream'.

[2] However, Harry Jelley suggested in the 1990s that Banwell was the home of St Patrick's father, who according to Patrick’s autobiographical Confessio 'fuit vico Bannavem Taburniae, villulam enim prope habuit, ubi ego capturam dedi' ('lived at Bannavem Taburniae, because he had a small estate nearby, where I was taken prisoner').

Banwell Camp, east of the village, is a univallate hillfort which has yielded flint implements from the Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age.

[12] Banwell Abbey was built as a bishop’s residence in the 14th and 15th century on the site of a monastic foundation.

It marks the reburial site of an ancient human skeleton found in a cave near Bishop's Cottage.

William Beard, an amateur archaeologist who had found the bones, had them reinterred and marked the site with the stone with a poetic inscription.

Originally built as his home, it is now a hotel and restaurant and is a Grade II* listed building.

The parish council's role also includes initiating projects for the maintenance and repair of parish facilities, such as the village hall or community centre, playing fields and playgrounds, as well as consulting with the district council on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning.

Conservation matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also of interest to the council.

The parish falls within the unitary authority of North Somerset which was created in 1996, as established by the Local Government Act 1992.

[20] The parish is represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom as part of the Wells and Mendip Hills constituency.

The summer months of July and August are the warmest with mean daily maxima of approximately 21 °C (69.8 °F).

In summer, a large proportion of the rainfall is caused by sun heating the ground leading to convection and to showers and thunderstorms.

Construction work was due to start in spring 2024 but was delayed as the main contractor withdrew from the project.

In September 2024, Galliford Try was appointed as the new main contractor and the start date was revised to the end of 2024.