The surrounding district, due to many factors such as the Cotswold Hills and distance from major cities, has a concentration of conservation areas featuring neatly cut blocks and masonry of Cotswold stone which is borne out by the building materials of the church's square-towered, multi-arch structure.

Its large stained glass windows, buttresses and neatly kept churchyard are among the reasons for its listing in the highest architectural category.

The remaining Norman work is confined to the buttresses and some chip-carved string at the west end of the church.

The chancel features a 14th-century truss-rafter roof, and a decorated piscina and part of a sedilia retaining traces of colour are fitted under the first south window, which is lowered to accommodate them.

The font is in goblet style from the late 16th century, and the stained glass was provided by Wailes and Strang, a 19th-century firm notable for English church window designs.

The tower and clerestory required substantial funds, provided by the community's wool trade which directly enriched the medieval rectory.

[7][8] The then parish priest, Reverend Robert William Hippisley, commissioned architect John Loughborough Pearson.

He attracted complaints in the running of the final civic (secular) vestry: ...all became controversial issues that on occasions led to physical violence.

In 1646 during the English Civil War, the Royalist army marched through the Cotswolds, attempting to join the forces of King Charles I at Oxford.

However, they were met by a Parliamentary force in the battle, and the encounter was so deadly that it was said ducks could bathe in the pools of blood left in the street near the market square.

[9] After the last battle in the war was fought at nearby Donnington, Gloucestershire, the church housed 1,000 prisoners following the defeat of the Royalists.

[14] Elrington, a prominent historian selected to compile the lengthy Victoria County History work found sources such as quoting the town's name as Edwardstow(e) from at least Domesday.

A Latin charter pre-dating the other main contender for the dedication, bearing the date 986, he added, seems to be a medieval fake.

[6] He draws attention to the other lightly evidenced roots: saint 'Edwold' Æthelwold of Winchester and the late 12th century-canonised immediately pre-1066 King, Edward the Confessor being the dedication, the latter being taken as true in local 15th century worship.

[6] The annual value of the benefice rose to over £500 a year in 1864, equivalent to £62,000 in 2023, since which it has in real terms waned due to economic changes and a loss of public functions' supervision, such as to Cotswold District council and central government.

[6] Three chantries in the town, one including a hospital, one formerly known as a guild that was reputedly pre-Conquest ended on Henry VIII's Chantries Acts; various educational and civic improvements and products of funding from the church are shown in medieval National Archives and Lambeth Palace records.

[6] In 1712 Quarter Sessions (county judicial/administrative matters) ordered that a combined workhouse and house of correction should be established at Stow in the 'Eagle and Child'.

Expenditure on poor relief in the late 18th century increased more than the average for the area, and remained high.

[6] Numerous church-overseen testamentary charities served, many of which were sufficient provision for the weak and infirm housed in the row of almshouses.