The highest point of the ridge is Red Hill, which rises to 440 feet (130 m) just south of the village.

[2] The Domesday Book records that in 1086 William the Conqueror's half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux held Forest Hill.

[2] Ilbert de Lacy also held the manor in the adjacent parish of Stanton St. John.

In about 1100 de Lacy's son forfeited both manors, and his holding at Forest Hill passed to Robert D'Oyly.

[2] After the dissolution of the monasteries each of the Forest Hill estates quickly passed through the hands of owners who may have bought and sold former monastic lands as speculative investments.

[2] The Forest Hill estate remained in the Brome family for four generations but fell into debt, was mortgaged twice in the 1620s and was finally sold in 1630.

It was garrisoned in the early years of the English Civil War by Royalist troops, later supplanted by Parliamentarian forces that occupied Forest Hill.

In 1643 the poet John Milton stayed at the house, where he courted the daughter of the family, 16-year-old Mary Powell.

When the de Lacy manor was granted to Cardinal Wolsey in 1526, St Nicholas' church was included.

In 1807 Lincoln College, Oxford bought the estate, including the manor house and St Nicholas' church.

[2] The parish has had a watermill since the 13th century, when land was granted to Osney Abbey in 1221 and 1229 to build one on Bayswater Brook.