[1] The surviving church is notable for its large west tower, considered "amongst the finest in East Dorset",[2] three medieval wall paintings and numerous monuments.

[3] In a manuscript by William Dugdale, housed in the Ashmolean Museum, it is stated that in ancient times there was a college of six monks at Cranborne, built in memory of certain Britons who were slain in battle there.

[3] Some of the earliest history comes from the chronicle of Tewkesbury, which states that in 930, during the reign of Athelstan, there was a knight named Aylward Sneaw (also known as Aethelweard Maew), nicknamed 'Snow' for his pale complexion.

[3][4] Following the Norman Conquest of 1066, the holder of the manor, Brihtric, was imprisoned by William the Conqueror in Winchester Castle for an act of disrespect against his wife, Queen Matilda.

[3][4][5] The Domesday Book of 1086 records that Cranborne Abbey was one of the most important monastic foundations in the region, holding at its maximum extent some 13,000 acres (20 sq mi) of land across four counties, including in Gillingham (Dorset), Damerham (Hampshire), Ashton Keynes (Wiltshire) and Loosebeare, near Crediton (Devon).

[1][3][4] In 1535, the yearly income of Cranborne Priory amounted to £55 6s 1d, surveyed as part of Valor Ecclesiasticus, a nationwide examination of the Church of England's finance ordered by Henry VIII.

From 1874 to 1875, the medieval chancel was demolished and rebuilt in the Gothic Revival style to designs by David Brandon, and the north vestry enlarged concurrently.

The oldest part of the building is the Norman doorway in the porch, which dates back to 1120, and features recessed arches and dog-tooth carvings.

For a relatively small village, the church is large and spacious, displaying every style of architecture from the late Norman period to the more decorative Perpendicular Gothic era.

The newer parts of the church, the chancel and vestry are built externally from flint, with windows cased in Bath stone.

The porch, rebuilt in the mid 19th century contains Upper Greensand and Chilmark Oolite, in addition to flint, Heathstone and Bath stone.

[2][11] The interior of the church features Purbeck marble, famous for its use in Salisbury Cathedral, for the nave columns, sandwiched between two layers of Chilmark Oolite.

The chancel itself is a Gothic Revival construction, separated from the nave by a thin wooden screen and designed by David Brandon, featuring a wagon roof.

The windows of the north nave aisle feature mostly Victorian stained glass from 1885, depicting Bartholomew, Jesus, Paul and Peter.

Much of the south nave aisle glass is also Victorian, one of the windows being dedicated to John Tregonwell of nearby Cranborne Lodge, who died in 1885.

[2][3][13][14] There is an ancient font in the south aisle, dating from the early 13th century, carved from Purbeck stone and featuring an octagonal bowl.

The font originally had a wooden cover depicting a church steeple, which still survives amongst the monuments in the north nave aisle.

A meeting of the parish council was called in 1889, and it was decided that the frame and belfry floor should be replaced, and if enough money could be raised, the bells augmented to eight with two new trebles, given the ample space in the tower.

The first full peal on the bells and in the tower was on 6 June 1892, comprising 5040 changes of Grandsire Triples in 3 hours and 1 minute, rung by the Winchester Diocesan Guild of Ringers.

[10][16][17] In the very late 19th century, John Taylor & Co of Loughborough mastered the art of true harmonic tuning, a technique thought to be lost.

As such, by 1948, it was realised that Cranborne's bells, cast before this technique was mastered, were tonally poor, so a scheme was launched to replace the mixed ring of eight with a new and heavier eight which would be more in tune with each other.