It lies 1.1 miles (1.8 km) south-west of the town of Congleton on the A34 road, which forms one side of the village green.

The parish of Astbury historically covered a large area, also including Congleton and several surrounding hamlets.

The name Astbury is thought to derive from 'East Bury', with the village having grown up in Anglo-Saxon times to the east of the site of a Roman camp at Bent Farm.

In 1866, the legal definition of 'parish' was changed to be the areas used for administering the poor laws, and so each township became a civil parish.

[13] Newbold Astbury was placed under a grouped parish council with neighbouring Moreton cum Alcumlow in 1975.

[14] St. Mary's at Astbury is a large 12th-century church, rebuilt on a unique trapezoidal plan in the 13th and 14th centuries.

There is a 14th-century effigy of a knight in the Lady Chapel, and another, possibly earlier, canopied tomb in the churchyard.

The church stands at the apex of the village green and is in the Early English and Perpendicular styles, built between the 13th and 15th centuries.