Little remains of an early church at the village, since renovations have much altered the character. Yet the dedication to St. Botolph would seem to suggest an early founding, for Botolph had been an English Benedictine monk of the 7th century A.D. Supposedly he founded a monastery at Boston – Botolph’s town – in 654A.D., and following his death the cult of St. Botolph became very popular, with some 70 English churches being assigned to this dedication. Whilst he had no direct association with the county, the influence of Botolph may well have been brought by migrants escaping from the Danish threat in eastern England, and possibly the church, as apparent today, was founded shortly after the Norman Conquest. Indeed, the first mention of a priest is made in 1166, with the right to present a rector having been granted by Simon de Beauchamp to the Augustinian priory of Newnham, near Bedford. However, Falkes de Breaute, on behalf of the prior of Dunstable, then challenged this right, until Simon clarified the position in writing; ‘Simon de Beauchamp to his most holy father Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, greeting! ——- your holiness will know that no-one but the canons of Newnham has ever had from me or my ancestors any right to Aspley church. Faerwell!’ With the position thus confirmed, Newnham presented Henricus de Carlion, ‘clericus’, to Aspley church in 1223, whilst as for Falkes de Breaute, ‘a Norman of mean and illegitimate birth’, through being an ‘unscrupulous and Godless man’ his Aspley estate was confiscated two years later. In the 15th century the right to present a rector to the church then passed from the monks to the Gyse family, which was probably just as well, since following King Henry VIII’s declaration as Supreme Head of the English Church all monasteries were dissolved. Chantries also suffered this fate, and land that had once been owned by a chantry at Aspley now went to endow a light in the village church. From this period of new English prayer, on the north chancel wall may be seen a plaque inscribed with a skull to William Stone, the rector from 1583 until 1617, although not every rector would fully reconcile their faith with this new religious direction. In fact in 1638 the Aspley Guise rector, Zachary Seton, was called before the Archbishop’s Visitor of the Diocese to be ‘suddenly questioned for not reading the booke of Recreations to be used on the Lord’s day wherein your petitioner not being then resolved upon answer is suspended from his ministry.’ Zachary then wrote to Archbishop Laud to further plead his already impoverished state, since he ‘hath exercised his function in a peaceable way not intermeddling with anything that might to scisme of Faction And hath lately suffered an exceeding greate losse by a sudden Fire that befell him in his house which he hath not yet recovered.’ Effectively the Reformation put an end to church building and general repair, although a renovation had been possibly carried out by 1665, since this date appears on the tower. As for more mundane attentions, in 1704 payment was made ‘to the Glazier for mending church windows £00 01s 06d’, but renovations on a more extensive scale were begun in the early 19th century, when the walls were repaired, and a new roof laid ‘of fir wood covered with Countess slate.’ Building upon this progress, on May 29th 1824 an estimate of £52 from Robert Nixon, of Woburn, was then accepted to construct a new gallery at the western end of the church, and this would be for the use of ‘the singers and poorest inhabitants.’ On May 2nd 1844 a decision was then made for as much of the church as necessary to be taken down, rebuilt and enlarged. Financed by the Reverend Moore, the addition of a south aisle was made in 1855, and in 1869 28 stain glass windows, by Baillie and O’Connor, were variously inserted throughout the church. Cast at the Taylor foundry, in Loughborough, a new peal of six bells would be hung in 1883, at a cost of £100, and at a cost of £150 the following year witnessed the rebuilding of the upper part of the tower, with the addition of the organ chamber, vestries and south chapel being made, at a cost of £2,200, in 1890. As for external features, the burial ground on the opposite side of the road was given during the early 20th century by the Rev. H. Moody, who was also lord of the manor.