A church at Combe existed by about 1141, when the Empress Matilda granted it to the Benedictine Eynsham Abbey.

[2] The nave was rebuilt near the end of the 14th century, and is notable for its 14th- or 15th-century stone pulpit and a set of wall paintings dating from about 1440.

The most complete survivor is one on the southeast corner of the nave depicting Saint James the Great.

In the tracery at the top of the east window of the chancel survive images of Christ in Majesty with Saint Mary, flanked by cherubim and an angel using a censer.

In 1843 they were criticised as "miserable, deal pews" and the church as "white and yellow wash, dirt, and everything most offensive".

[4] After the tower fire in 1918, John Taylor & Co of Loughborough recast the damaged bells as a ring of six in 1924[4][5] or 1925.

In the late 1930s these remains were presented to the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford,[6] where they were restored and installed as an exhibit.

[4] Donald Harden, Keeper of Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum, recognised its similarity with the Dover Castle Clock, and in 1938 he concluded that the two were by the same clockmaker.