In 1876 The Church Rambler records that 'Before the.Reformation, Stoke was a chapelry to Bradford and was served by itinerant priests who stayed at the priest's house,which was pulled down a quarter of a century since when thenational schools were built. ' The house is listed in the church inventory of 1608 and recorded as Vicarial Glebe on the 1841 tithe map.
In 1844 the land was conveyed in trust for a Church of England school, in union with the National Society, which was built in 1845 with the aid of a Treasury grant of £75.The school had a shaky start for, in 1859, it was recordedthat it had re-opened three years before. In spite of the fact that many children of dissenters in Limpley Stoke attended the school at Freshford, there were 20 to 30 children in attendance in 1859, an average attendance of 51 in 1893 (which reduced to 39 in 1910) and a mere handful in 1930.
The school closed in 1933. The building and land returned to the Diocese, with the vicar and churchwardens as trustees of the Foundation. The building was converted for use as a church hall and the following letting charges (not including heating and lighting) agreed: political meetings 10s 6d, meetings lasting two hours 3s 6d, three to four hours 5s, late evening 7s 6d, Parish Council meetings 2s 6d, gas included. In 1960 the Salisbury Diocesan Council of Education persuaded St Mary's Parochial Church Council to buy the property and this was completed in November 1961. It was subsequently leased to the village for use as the Village Hall in 1974. In July 1997, a new cross carved from stone given by the Bath Stone Mine was blessed by the Bishop of Bath and Wells.
The site of the school is shown as a smaller building (1749) on the 1841 tithe map and described as the Vicarage House.It was being rented by the long-standing parish clerk, George Forster, who was 35 at the time. He was a house and land agent and no doubt related to Richard Forster of Bath who rented out the five houses opposite known as Forster's Buildings.