The River Cherwell and Oxford Canal pass 1 mile (2 km) east of the village.

The earliest evidence of occupation in the area is an Iron Age burial site in the west of the parish near Hopcroft's Holt.

[2] The Domesday Book of 1086 records that Odo, Bishop of Bayeux was overlord of the manor of Steeple Aston.

[5] The parish church is the source of the Steeple Aston Cope, an important piece of 14th-century embroidery now on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

[2] Meetings were held in 1838 and 1839 to hear Primitive Methodist preachers and were well-attended despite uproarious organised protests.

[10] The village forms part of The Astons and The Heyfords ward of Cherwell District Council and has two councillors.

About 1 mile (1.6 km) south-east of the village is Heyford railway station providing a rail link to Banbury, Oxford and Birmingham.

There is also The Holt Hotel public house on the edge of the parish on the A4260 main road about 1 mile (1.6 km) southwest of the village.

Annual parish events include the Whit Races, and the spring and summer flower shows.

[14] The Steeple Aston Players used to be an amateur dramatic group that regularly performed plays in the village hall.

[18] Steeple Aston Life, which was first printed in August 1973,[19] is a monthly magazine delivered freely to all residents and sold at the village shop.

[20] Early in John le Carré's novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, George Smiley, after a disagreeable dinner, contemplates selling up and leaving London to live in the country and thinks to himself: "Steeple Aston sounds about right."