A church and a mill are recorded at Prestetone (later Preston) in the Domesday Survey of 1086. The church still exists and the mill may have been a watermill powered by the Wellesbourne seasonal River. The land was managed by the Bishop of Chichester. At that time the village was home to 30 villagers and 20 smallholders.
1086 - The First Recording of Prestetone
According to ecclesiastical logs, The Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, Richard le Grant, visited the village in 1230. This may have been to consecrate the site of the flint St Peters Church. The foundations of what is now Preston Manor consists of a nave, chancel and western tower also built in the 1200’s.
1230 - A famous visitor
After the plague responsibility for managing the rural downland around Preston fell to the landed gentry whose tenants kept sheep and sold wool. Powerful local sussex family, the Shirley family, became the tenants of the Preston Manor.
c. 1450–1500 The Shirley Family
A significant number of the Prestons villagers were killed by the plague.