St Andrew parish sits in Blunsdon, although not within the area of the Northern Development Area. This is a village dating back to the Iron Age, where the earliest ancestors fortified and built a settlement. Blunsdon is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Bluntesdone', at which time the settlement had a population of only two or three adult males. In 1281, there was also a reference to 'Bluntesdon Seynt Andreu'. Additionally in recent years, archaeologists discovered a Roman travellers' resting place on the site of the present-day Cold Harbour pub a mile or so away from the 'northern expansion', and the A419 main road through Blunsdon also follows the course of a Roman road known as Ermine Street that linked the historic towns of Cirencester and Silchester.