The village was originally recorded as "Stoches" in the Domesday Book of 1086, from the Old English word "stoc" meaning an outlying farm or hamlet. The suffix Mandeville was first recorded in 1284 when the manor was listed as being in the hands of the powerful Norman de Mandeville family. The former medieval parish church on the outskirts of the village was condemned in the mid 20th Century and was demolished in January 1966. The newer red brick parish church of St Mary, consecrated in July 1866 by Bishop of Oxford Samuel Wilberforce, remains as the only church in the village apart from the Methodist church in Eskdale Road.