Northleach seems to have existed by about AD 780, when one Ethelmund son of Ingold granted 35 tributarii of land to Gloucester Abbey.

In 1095 a later Archbishop of York, Thomas of Bayeux, restored manors including Northleach to Gloucester Abbey.

Northleach became a Royal manor and remained so until 1611, when James I sold it to George and Thomas Whitmore.

Sir Thomas was a Royalist, so in 1645 in the English Civil War the Parliamentarians sequestered his estates, but Northleach was given such a low valuation that he was allowed to keep it.

Northleach stayed in his family until 1753, when William Whitmore sold it to James Lennox Dutton, who had inherited a number of houses in the town from his father.

[4] No confirmed material from this period survives in the current Church of England parish church of SS Peter and Paul; there has been speculation that some Norman masonry may exist in the west wall of the lady chapel (known as the Bicknell Chapel), though this is disputed.

The nave has tall five-bay arcades with slender octagonal columns ornamented with concave sides.

The church's pre-reformation medieval stone mensa slab was discovered buried beneath the chancel floor during this restoration work, but was then reburied.

[7] In 1961 a new restoration was begun, which included seats designed by Sir Basil Spence and made by Gordon Russell.

In the chancel Gibbs' 1871 east window was replaced by a modern one of Christ in Majesty made by Christopher Webb in 1963.

[8] Its benefice is now combined with the parishes of Cold Aston, Compton Abdale, Farmington, Hampnett, Haselton, Notgrove and Turkdean.

In the chancel is a brass portraying a priest, William Lander (died 1530), in his Mass vestments.

[10] In 1700 William and Robert Cor of Aldbourne, Wiltshire cast a ring of six bells for the west tower.

[12] Dissenters were recorded in Northleach in the 17th and 18th centuries, and by 1796 a Congregationalist group was meeting in a room in the town.

Northleach became a staging post, with the King's Head became the main coaching inn, and by about 1820 the Sherborne Arms trying to win a share of the trade.

[4] In 1841 the Cirencester Branch Line opened and the coach trade lost traffic to the Great Western Railway.

A truncated coach service via Northleach then linked Gloucester and Cheltenham with Steventon railway station in what was then Berkshire, until in 1845 the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway completed the Golden Valley Line between Swindon and Gloucester via Kemble.

By 1841 a detachment of the new Gloucestershire Constabulary was based at Northleach, and a women's wing was added to the prison in 1842.

A workhouse was designed on a cruciform plan by George Wilkinson of Witney, Oxfordshire and built at the east end of the town.

[4][15] From 1846 a division of the Gloucester county court sat at Northleach, initially at the King's Head Inn.

The following year Northleach petty sessional division was merged with that of Stow-on-the-Wold, and all trials were moved there.

[21] In 1559 a bequest by wealthy landowner and sheep-farmer, Hugh Westwood of Chedworth, founded Northleach Grammar School.

The Snooker Club uses the ground floor of the Cotswold Hall which is on West End, almost opposite the Wheatsheaf Inn.

Northleach's main bus service is Stagecoach West route S2, which links Cheltenham and Oxford via Burford and Witney.

Pulham's route 801 runs between Cheltenham and Moreton-in-Marsh via Charlton Kings, Andoversford, Bourton-on-the-Water and Stow-on-the-Wold.

Not all services on route 801 serve Northleach: only two each way a day on Mondays to Saturdays and one on public holidays.

[42] In 2002, The Gathering was filmed in Northleach, taking over the market place with a fair and fake bomb explosion.

[43] In August 2014 filming began for the BBC's adaptation of J. K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy with the marketplace being transformed into the fictional town of Pagford.

[44] In 2015 filming started for You, Me and the Apocalypse, a Sky One miniseries; the marketplace was again transformed to look like an apocalyptic version of a Suffolk village.

[46] In June 2017 the music video for "Benz Truck" [47] by the now deceased US singer and rapper Lil Peep was released for his debut album Come Over When You're Sober, Pt.