[2] Domesday Book (1086) records Buckland Monachorum (Bocheland) as having 46 households, land for 15 ploughs, a salt pan and a fishery.

The village is the site of St Andrew's, a 12th-century church with a Saxon baptismal font and the tombs of the Drake family and Lord Heathfield, the defender of Gibraltar, many historic buildings, and a complex of interesting gardens, known as "The Garden House".

The Gift House, a seventeenth-century Almshouse, was built by a descendant of Sir Francis Drake.

St Andrew's C of E Primary School is located in the village, providing education for around 200 pupils from the local area.

[6] In addition to Buckland Monachorum, the parish includes the villages of Yelverton, Clearbrook, Crapstone and Milton Combe.