The Church originates from the fourteenth century, having been built by the Berkeley family. The presence of the Norman font suggests that there was an earlier Church (although this was reputedly partially built into the North wall in the eighteenth century - reference Pevsners Gloucester). There was certainly a Saxon Church, as the Doomsday Book states "Stoche hath one priest". This was probably a wooden building, and there would have been some sort of priest's dwelling. Archaeological excavations have revealed Roman occupation in the parish. Coins found on the site suggest that this occupation was from about AD270-350. This covers the time that the Christian Constantine was emperor, so it is possible that there was Christian worship in the Parish at that time. Almost ertainly later when St Augustine came to England.
In the 1930's Arthur Mee in his 'Gloucestershire - The King's England' described the village as 'One of the little places around Bristol, with a mediaeval Church between its green and busy railway junction. A quaint red-roofed building, with many gables, the Church has an embattled tower on the south side, opening with a plain massive arch with a pinnacled leafy hood, and in the simple inner doorway hangs an old studded door. Inside, the walls are cream, the roofs white and some of the walls are leaning. Square fluted pillars divide the Nave and the Aisle, and the Norman font, with a bowl like a great cushion capital, is partly built into a wall. The low altar rails are Jacobean. A l3th century window has a face among old fragments.'
In more recent times the population in the parish increased considerably. This was due to building of the railway in 1858, Sir George White's "Aeroplane Works" from 1910 through two World Wars and further, and the general building programmes from the 1960's onwards. The congregation at St Michael's increased correspondingly. In 1991 the Church of Christ the King was built at Bradley Stoke, still in the ecclesiastical parish of Stoke Gifford, with the Reverend Stephen Smith as its vicar and the Reverend David Widdows as the team rector. Each congregation had its own district council, both joining together in a parochial church council. Building of the new church was financed by parishioners throughout the diocese under the Diocesan Development Programme. Finance for equipment came from within the congregation and others as the result of an appeal fund for£50,000 in 1988.
Beyond the wall at the tower end of the churchyard there was a building for a private Sunday School. This was started in 1786, six years after Robert Raikes' first Sunday School. There are two interesting memorials on this side of the churchyard. One, in the form of an angel, is in memory of Fanny Pauline Close, wife of Admiral Francis Arden Close, of Stoke Park. The other, a broken pillar, is in memory of Martin Harding, a connection by marriage of the Mortimer family at Walls Court Farm, who died in a hunting accident.
Many old family names appear on the gravestones around the Church. The plot of ground near the Vicarage wall at the West end is consecrated for the burial of caskets from cremation. A pedestal for flowers, given by Mrs Bailey in memory of her husband, is at the corner. In the front of the Church are the oldest gravestones and vaults, the lettering of some being worn by time and weather. Silas Blandford, accountant to Norborne Berkeley is buried beneath one of the three table tombs. Miss Blandford, librarian and historian of Filton is his descendant. On the corner near the kissing gate is a gravestone covering the remains of Esau Dust in his final resting place.
Most Churches dedicated to St. Michael are situated on higher ground, and Stoke Gifford is no exception. The railway embankment makes it seem less obvious now, but the Church can be seen from most parts of the Parish. Old photographs show the Church to be almost completely covered by ivy.
It was partly removed during the nineteenth century alterations, and again in 1922, to prevent damage to the walls. At the nave end of the South wall is a blocked arched doorway. This would have been the most public view of the Church from Church Road before the coming of the railway.
