[3][4]: 278 According to legend King Edward the Confessor gave some land to one of his men in return for slaying a wild boar that had infested the nearby Bernwood Forest.

[5][6] It is certainly the case from manorial records of 1265 that the owner of the manor of Boarstall was the ceremonial keeper of the Bernwood Forest, suggesting a link with the earlier legend.

[5] The Magna Britannia of 1806 noted that the then-current incumbent of the manor, Sir John Aubrey, was in possession of a large horn ...[6] ... of a dark brown colour, variegated and veined like tortoise-shell.

Ecclesiastically, Boarstall was originally a chapel of ease for nearby Oakley, and its tithes were granted by Empress Matilda to St Frideswide's Priory in Oxford.

The original parish church was mainly demolished in the English Civil War but a replacement was constructed out of funds provided by Lady Denham.