It is an "ancient parish"; a village or group of villages or hamlets and the adjacent lands which originally they held ecclesiastical functions, but from the 16th century onwards they also acquired civil roles.

It has a 12th-century west tower with a central pilaster-buttress on each face, a single nave, and a square-ended chancel.

[6] Around 1940 Preston Deanery consisted of four semi-detached properties, half a dozen farms and Preston Deanery Hall, once inhabited by monks but since converted to a private residence.

During the Second World War one of the houses was occupied by a boy and his mother, who worked as a domestic servant at the Hall.

[7] Further urban expansion of Northampton was being planned in October 2008 with another 13,500 houses and additional infrastructure in the rural areas around Grange Park, Quinton and Preston Deanery[8] however the incoming Conservative-LibDem coalition government of the 2010 General Election has abolished this expansion proposal.