The parish is bounded to the northeast by the River Evenlode, to the southeast partly by the course of Akeman Street Roman road, and on other sides by field boundaries.

It is thought that there was a settlement of some kind here at the time of the Domesday survey of 1086 when it formed part of the Hundred of Banbury belonging to the Bishop of Lincoln.

In the early 16th century the manor of Charlbury and its land, including Finstock, was held by Sir Thomas White, a London tailor who founded St John's College, Oxford, in 1555.

The college then resumed direct control until 1857, when the lordship of the manor passed to Francis Spencer, 2nd Lord Churchill of Wychwood, the owner of Cornbury Park.

He was ordained, became chaplain of Worcester College, Oxford and after meeting Eliot in 1923 (with whom he shared a love of cats) steadily drew him towards Anglicanism and agreed to baptise him.

[14] The current (in 2021) Vicar, the Reverend Paul Mansell, arrived in February 2010; he was trained at Ripon College, Cuddesdon and ordained at Christ Church, Oxford.

Other land was used for sheep grazing and many of the people of Finstock were involved in the wool industry — the carding being done by men and boys and the spinning by women.

Glove making at the village hall site by the women and agricultural labouring on nearby land by the men and boys, used to be the principal occupations of the people of Finstock in the earlier part of the 20th century.

[citation needed] The building of the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OW&WR) along the Evenlode Valley began in 1845 and the line was opened in 1853.

Finstock has a Church of England primary school[18] and a Village Hall that was opened by David Cameron, then MP and Prime Minister in May 2016.