[1] The River Windrush flows past the village and with its tributary Medley Brook it forms much of the eastern boundary of the parish.

Palaeolithic axes have been found west of Standlake village and northeast of Brighthampton.

Late Bronze Age urn burials have been found in ring ditches north of Brighthampton on Standlake Downs.

[2] A large pagan burial ground from the 5th and 6th centuries has been found south of Malthouse Farm in Brighthampton.

[2] The Domesday Book records that in 1086 William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford was the feudal overlord of a manor of six hides at Brighthampton.

When his heir Richard de Redvers, 4th Earl of Devon died in 1193, Standlake passed to the Crown.

After her death, Richard II granted Standlake to William Montacute, 2nd Earl of Salisbury.

William Taylor of Loughborough cast the tenor bell in 1843, presumably at the foundry he had at the time in Oxford.

[10] The central range of St Giles' Rectory dates from at least 1246 and includes a lancet window from about 1300.

Further alterations and additions were made in the 18th and 19th centuries, and dilapidated outbuildings including the parish's tithe barn were demolished.

In 1980 the rectory was sold as a private house, and in restoration work in 1981 the new owners uncovered early 17th century wall paintings in an upstairs room over the hall.

[11] A Baptist chapel was built between Brighthampton and Standlake in 1832, flourished in the 1840s and 50s and a gallery was added to increase capacity in 1865.

In the English Civil War it belonged to Samuel Fell, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford[6] and was garrisoned by Royalist troops until the Parliamentarian Colonel Thomas Rainsborough besieged and captured it in May 1645.

Thereafter it was garrisoned by Parliamentarian troops, including cavalry who raided Kidlington in October 1645 and infantry who fought at Radcot in April 1646.

On his death in 1686 John Fell left Gaunt House to Christ Church, Oxford to provide an income to pay bursaries for poor students.

At one time its tenant was Walter Bayley, who was physician to Elizabeth I[6] and from 1561 until 1582 was Regius Professor of Physic at the University of Oxford.

It is a timber framed thatched cottage dating from around 1550, with subsequent stone built in the 17th and 20th century additions.

An open field system of farming prevailed in the parish until 1853, when its common lands were enclosed.

[2] By the early part of the 17th century Standlake had three or four public houses, including the Chequers, which traded until at least 1781.

[2][15] By 1790 The Bell had opened in Rack End, but by 1804 it had moved to the High Street[2] to a building, part of which is timber-framed infilled with brick nogging, and the remainder of which is built of Cotswold stone.

[17] Classes were held in St. Giles' church until 1846, when a schoolroom and schoolmaster's house were built on land given by Magdalen College.

[18] Standlake had a lending library, established with the support of the Rector by 1877, and which continued intermittently until the 20th century.

Barbara Dockar Drysdale founded the Mulberry Bush School for severely disturbed children at the house in 1948.

[19] Standlake has a car repair garage, two camp sites and a Post Office and general store.

[25] Standlake is surrounded by numerous artificial lakes dug for the commercial extraction of gravel.