Although Hollington is now a large suburb, consisting mostly of postwar residential development, the church has stood in isolation in the middle of an ancient wood since it was founded in the 13th century—almost certainly as the successor to an 11th-century chapel.

Legends and miraculous events have been associated with the church, and its secluded situation has been praised by writers including Charles Lamb.

[1][4] No chapel or church was mentioned in the Domesday survey, but the will of a later Count of Eu written in 1139 states that one existed on the present site in 1090, suggesting possible pre-Norman origins.

Filsham was the more important manor,[2] but its church (and the chapel at Wilting) had disappeared by the time Pope Nicholas IV ordered a census of all places of worship for taxation purposes in 1291.

[9] The first mention of a vicar was in 1288, but the first whose name has been recorded was John de Levenyngton, who moved to All Saints Church in Hastings Old Town in 1344.

Work started in 1847 and continued for nearly 20 years:[5] the church closed for a time in 1861 while repairs were made, then Matilda Dampner paid for a complete restoration in 1865 to commemorate her parents.

[19] After this, little change occurred in the church itself, although a lychgate was built at the entrance to the churchyard in 1937,[20] general repairs were made in 1964 and an extension was added in 1977 to form a parish room and vestry.

[5][9] The church is built of stone rubble, the roof is tiled, and the pyramid-shaped cap on the tower is tile-hung;[9] it was originally weatherboarded.

[28] A description from 1874 stated simply that "the Church is picturesquely situated in the heart of a romantic wood, having no hut or house of any kind within a quarter of a mile".

[28][29] Diplock's Hastings Guidebook of 1845 stated "[i]t is the singularity of [its] situation, more than anything in the building itself, that generally attracts visitors ... it looks as if having been forsaken by all human visitants, a thicket had grown up and enclosed it like the Castle of the Sleeping Beauty in the old fairy tale".

[30] London essayist Charles Lamb wrote the best-known description after visiting Hastings in 1823: The best thing I hit upon was a small country Church (by whom or when built unknown), standing bare and single in the midst of a grove, with no house or appearance of habitation within a quarter of a mile, only passages diverging from it through beautiful woods, to so many farm houses.

This was built over several years from 1956 by the Brighton-based firm Denman & Sons to serve the rapidly expanding council estate west of the Battle Road.

[31] The approximate boundaries of the parish are Battle Road, between the borough boundary in the north and Hollington Old Lane; the residential streets between Hollington and neighbouring Silverhill; the railway line between West St Leonards and Crowhurst railway stations (including some of the rural land west of it); and Breadsell Lane.