The name of the village is believed to come from 'compton', or narrow valley, belonging to a Norman knight called Pauncefote ('Fat-bellied').

[4] Baron Blackford, of Compton Pauncefoot in the County of Somerset, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.

The A303 is nearby and during construction major drainage pipes were laid at intervals that bring significant quantities of water into the stream.

The parish meeting's role also includes liaising with the district council over projects for the maintenance and repair of parish facilities, as well as consulting with the district council on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning.

The village falls within the Non-metropolitan district of South Somerset, which was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, having previously been part of Wincanton Rural District,[5] which is responsible for local planning and building control, local roads, council housing, environmental health, markets and fairs, refuse collection and recycling, cemeteries and crematoria, leisure services, parks, and tourism.

It is also part of the Glastonbury and Somerton, a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Compton Castle was built for John Hubert Hunt about 1825,[6] in a Gothic style with large grounds, gatehouse, and lawns stretching down to a lake.

[7] Recently this house and the church were used quite extensively in a serialised version of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park.

The north aisle was added in 1864, and at the same time the two stone coffins (now in the churchyard by the yew tree) were removed.

In the wall under the sill of the adjacent window is a long stone panel divided into compartments, each containing a shield bearing coats of arms relating to the Whyting and Pauncefoot families.

Five stained glass windows in the church are signed — a rare phenomenon — by Jean-Baptiste Capronnier of Brussels.

The top of the spire became unsafe, and an appeal was launched in 1980, with the help of grants from the Department of the Environment and the Historic Churches Preservation Trust.