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The parish church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Church Hanborough is built of ashlar, and comprises a chancel with north and south chapels and a north vestry, and an aisled and clerestoried nave with north and south porches, and a west tower with stone spire, which is flanked by the aisles. The 12th-century church seems to have comprised a chancel flanked by short chapels and a long aisled nave. Several windows and the north and south doorways with carved tympana survive, the north tympanum showing St. Peter with a lion and the lamb of God. The chancel and the chancel arch were rebuilt early in the 13th century, the chancel being of notably high quality, and the north chapel was extended eastwards about the same date. Also at that time the aisles were heightened, the porches were added, and a tower was built at the west end of the nave. Early in the 14th century the north chapel was remodelled and the vestry added. In 1399 an indulgence to all those giving alms for the fabric and conservation of Hanborough church marked the beginning of a series of works to remodel the building. About 1400 the tower was rebuilt, leaving only the bases of the original arches to the nave and aisles, and western buttresses and a spire were added. Shortly after that the nave arcades were rebuilt, the new arcades having two-centred arches and tall octagonal piers with concave faces. The arcades' similarity to those at Northleach (Glos.) has led to the suggestion that they are the work of the same master mason. Later in the 15th century new windows were inserted in the aisles and the east end of the chancel, and the chancel and its chapels were cut off from the nave by the surviving carved and painted wooden screens; the work appears to have continued for some time, as the northern screen is appreciably later and more elaborate than the southern one. The clerestory and a new low-pitched roof were added to the nave in the early 16th century.

Regular repairs were carried out in the 17th and 18th centuries. Extensive work between 1660 and 1662 included repairs to the spire. Much of the roof seems to have been renewed in 1778-9 and 1799-1800. More important repairs carried out between 1845 and 1847 may have included the removal of a gallery, perhaps the singer's gallery recorded c. 1806. The church was restored in 1860 under the supervision of S. L. Seckham; the east window was replaced by one in 14th-century style, and a new window was inserted west of the south porch (presumably new tracery in an existing window opening). The 15th-century screens were saved only by the intervention of Bishop Wilberforce. Further alterations were made in 1892 when the west door was opened, the font moved to a position under the tower, and the 15thcentury pulpit repaired and lowered to its original level. The south chapel was refurnished as a war memorial chapel in 1947, and in 1952 a new altar was placed in the Lady chapel and a rood hung over the chancel screen. In the same year the south porch was made into a temporary boiler house (still in use in 1986). The spire was repaired in 1972. 

The monuments include, at the east end of the nave, a brass of c. 1500 to Christopher Ford and his wife Joan and to Joan's first husband Thomas Wheeler, and, on the south wall of the chancel, a shroud brass to Alexander Belsyre (d. 1567). On the north wall of the chancel are marble wall monuments to Thomas Smith, curate 1699-1729, and his wife Mary and to Margaret, wife of Humphrey Clarke (d. 1592), a large plaque bearing her arms, erected by her grandson in 1632, and on the south wall are elaborate monuments, now virtually illegible, to William Denison (d. 1756), to Anna Maria Denison (d. 1761), and to Jane widow of Walter Culpeper (d. 1636). At the east end of the north aisle is a monument to Thomas Bouchier (d. 1723) and his wife Frances Astell and other members of their family, erected by their son William in 1780. Until the restoration of the church in 1860 there was painted on the south wall of the chancel a Latin poem in honour of Charles I. 

In 1728 the goods in the churchwardens' hands included Jewell's Works, Erasmus's Para-phrases, and the Book of Homilies. The books were still in the church in the early 18th century. The plate includes a silver chalice with paten cover of 1575, presumably that in the church in 1728, and a large, two-handled cup and cover of 1725, the gift of the rector William Derham (1748-57). There are five bells: (i) 1803; (ii) 1615; (iii) 1602; (iv) 1603 (probably an error for 1623); (v) 1786.

The rector John Bates, by will proved 1623, left £4 stock, the profits to be used for church repairs. The money was intact in 1685, when the church also held £6 said to have been given by the rector Ralph Merryman (d. 1578), although it was not mentioned in his will. By the early 17th century the church also held four houses, a piece of land, and a fishery, from the rents of which it received nearly £5 a year, and in 1663 it had 10 small areas of grassland. In 1773 the church land in Church field was let for £7 a year, the church close for £1 9s. 6d., and the fishery for £3 10s. a year. The income from the church property was sufficient to cover the churchwardens' normal expenditure until c. 1890. 

Thomas Bouchier (d. 1723) built a small, square mausoleum in the north-west corner of the churchyard in a vaguely gothic style. It survived until c. 1845 when it was apparently demolished for its materials which were used for building the new rectory house.  The churchyard was extended in 1873.

Historical information about the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul is provided by A P Baggs, W J Blair, Eleanor Chance, Christina Colvin, Janet Cooper, C J Day, Nesta Selwyn and S C Townley, 'Hanborough: Church', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 12, Wootton Hundred (South) Including Woodstock, ed. Alan Crossley and C R Elrington (London, 1990), pp. 173-177. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol12/pp173-177 [accessed 6 April 2023].

The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul is a Grade I listed building. For more information about the listing see CHURCH OF ST PETER AND ST PAUL, Hanborough - 1052991 | Historic England.

For more information about the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul see Hanborough: Church | British History Online (british-history.ac.uk).