Those buried or commemorated here include Knights, Earls, Viscounts, a Viceroy of India, a Governor-General of Australia, a Private Secretary to two Kings, two Field Marshals and two winners of the Victoria Cross.

[1] Through its courtiers, soldiers, statesmen, politicians or priests whose lives appear on memorials or through its changing architecture, brasses, carvings, effigies and windows, the church helps tell a country's story through the eyes of single village.

There may have been a church on the site since Saxon times, as suggested by the recent discovery of artefacts dating from 860 AD on adjoining land.

[1] Penshurst's first priest, Wilhelmus, was installed in 1170 by Archbishop Thomas Becket, his last public act before he was assassinated two days later in Canterbury Cathedral.

[3] There is a 15th-century polygonal font with quatrefoils on the bowl and tracery on the stem, a stone pulpit of c.1865 in a hard Italianate style, with mosaic inlay and Roman-style carved heads.

The chancel screen dates from 1895 and is by Bodley and Garner, in a very elaborate late Perpendicular style with delicate tracery and a coved loft.

The later work by Giles Gilbert Scott consists of a lofty space with three bays set below a quasi barrel vault.

[4] There is a wide collection of brasses and monuments with the Sanctuary dominated by memorials to previous rectors of the parish, the most notable of whom was Revd.

[4] Between the windows on the south wall is a memorial to Sir William Coventry (c. 1628–1686) who was a member of the powerful Naval Board whom Samuel Pepys served as Secretary whilst keeping his famous diary.

[4] His memorial is a massive architectural wall tablet in black and white marble with putti holding up an urn, probably by William Kidwell.

The extensive rebuilding was carried out to designs by John Biagio Rebecca (c.1777–1847), a decorative painter and architect, who also built Castle Goring and worked at Penshurst Place c.1818.

As part of the reworking, the Sidney Chapel received an elegant pointed tunnel vault, panelled and painted, and with carved bosses on the ribs.

[4] The most important memorials (see image) found in the Sidney Chapel include:[3][4] The North Aisle was broadened in 1854–1855 to the designs of George Gilbert Scott.

[2] Among those buried in the churchyard is Richard Sax, a farmer who was murdered following an argument with a farm labourer who worked on the estate of Lieutenant-General Lord Baden-Powell.