The village was named Clovesuurda meaning "homestead above the valley" in the Domesday Book of 1086, when it was the property of Robert, Count of Mortain.

The geology of the area is Cornbrash, the name applied to the uppermost member of the Bathonian stage of the Jurassic formation.

The name was adopted by William Smith for a thin band of shelly limestone which, in the south of England, breaks up in the manner indicated.

The Cornbrash is a very fossiliferous formation; the fauna indicates a transition from the Lower to the Middle Oolites, though it is probably more nearly related to that of the beds above than to those below.

[5] The Norman Church of All Saints in Sutton Bingham dates from the 12th and 13th centuries and has been designated as a Grade I listed building.