Roman coins and Romano-British potsherds have been found in the village and it is thought that there was certainly a settlement of some kind here at the time of the Domesday survey of 1086 when it formed part of the ‘hundred of Banbury’ belonging to the Bishop of Lincoln. The earliest known record of the history of Finstock was written in 1135 where the village is referred to as Fynstoke.

During the Middle Ages barley was the main crop in Finstock. Other land was used for sheep grazing and many of the people of Finstock were involved in the woollen industry – the carding being done by men and boys and the spinning by women. Glove-making at the village hall site by the women, and agricultural labouring on nearby land by the men and boys, used to be the principal occupations of the people of Finstock during the earlier part of the 20th century – although now many inhabitants of Finstock commute by car, bus and rail to Witney, Oxford and London.

Finstock is a separate civil and ecclesiastical parish of about 350 homes, a primary school, a pub and a church, its population mostly lying along the sides of a large triangle formed by the main Witney-Charlbury road (west to north), School Road (east) and Finstock High Street (south). Much in-filling with new buildings has further completed the triangle and four new estates were built during the 20th century. The farming now is mainly arable – barley, wheat and oilseed rape, although some mixed farming is still found.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the above information. Read the full entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finstock