Kilsby is mentioned in the Doomsday Book as "Chidesbi" (I).  The Danish form of this is probably Kildesby meaning "the settlement belonging to the eldest son of the Lord."  It is thought that the eldest son of the Barby Lord set up his village of Kilsby around 900 A.D.  Local historian Mr. Timmins suggests an 890-900 time slot.  Gren Hatton, Kilsby Historian, widens the possible dates to 880-950 A.D citing the thinness of the vestry walls and its difference in structure to the rest of the Church.  Mr. Timmins believes that this part of the Church was the original Saxon Church later extended into the present church, but this has never been proved and is indeed disputed.

During the medieval period Kilsby like most villages worked on the three field system.  (fig.1).  The original ridge and furrow system is still quite marked in some fields showing where villagers had their individual strips of land.  For much of the medieval period the land in Kilsby was owned by the Church to which villagers therefore held allegiance.  The medieval windmill site can still be clearly seen.

Kilsby shot into the national limelight on the 8th August 1642 when we believe Kilsby saw the first blood of the Civil War.  Captain Sir John Smith led a troop of 30 or so horsemen early on this wet morning into Kilsby, but the people seem not to have been taken by surprise because the villagers met the troops, some with muskets and others with pitchforks and clubs.  The villagers were asked to give up arms.  In the skirmish that followed several villagers were killed, in particular who attacked Captain Smith with his pitchfork.

During the Civil War there were several incidents within the village due to its buffer zone status between Parliament and Royalist zones. 

The next time anything of note happened was in the nineteenth century when Kilsby was invaded by an army of 250 Navvies who came to build the Kilsby Tunnel.  George Stephenson, son of Robert Stevenson, lived in the village during the construction of this important 2400 yard north south rail link.  The tunnel caused various problems due to flooding and quicksand.  It took six months of pumping to get rid of the water.  The tunnel took approximately 30,000,000  bricks and was finished in 1838.

Since then very little has happened.  King George passed through on September 20th 1913 at which time there was also a lot of troop movement in the area and during the second world war there were air raids on the 15th August and 15th November 1940.