In 1086 Burstock was recorded in the Domesday Book as 'Bureuuinestoch',[3] meaning a farm ('stoc') owned by either 'Burgwine' (a man) or 'Burgwynn' (a woman).[4] It had 12 households, 8 acres of meadow and 3 ploughlands. It was in Whitchurch Canonicorum Hundred, the lord was William Malbank and the tenant-in-chief was Earl Hugh of Chester.[5]
Before the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the mid 16th century, Burstock was closely associated with the Cistercian monks at nearby Forde Abbey; at Whetham, in the north of the parish, the abbey developed a mill, and in 1316 the Abbot became Burstock's lord of the manor.[4]