[2] A ruinous church dating from the 12th century was dismantled and rebuilt by prolific ecclesiastical architect Arthur Blomfield in 1885, but some old features were retained.

[2] A church has served the village since the 12th century or earlier: in 1105 it was granted by Robert de Haye to Lessay Abbey in Normandy.

[2][4] Bishop Leodegar (c. 616–678), sometimes anglicised to Leger or Latinised as Leodegarius, was martyred by having his tongue and eyes pulled out and being beheaded.

It was pictured and described again 16 years later in The Gentleman's Magazine: there was a flat-arched entrance in the west wall and an older (apparently 12th-century) south door with Norman-style chevron moulding, a continuous roof over the nave and south aisle, a three-bay pointed-arched round-columned arcade separating the aisle and nave, and lancet windows throughout.

[2][4] Similar features were depicted in sketches by other artists in the 19th century, including one dated c. 1851 by Richard Henry Nibbs in which the nave and chancel were clearly in ruinous condition.

[5] A survey of Sussex churches by John Mason Neale and Benjamin Webb in 1841 noted that there were wall murals inside in the form of painted Biblical verses.

[13] The new St Leodegar's Church stands on the same site as its medieval predecessor,[14] next to the 17th-century manor house in an isolated position south of the village.

[3][4] Although Victorian restorations of dilapidated ancient churches were very common in Sussex, demolitions and complete reconstructions did not happen very often—although other examples do exist.

[15] It is a stone-built church in the Early English Gothic Revival style, with a chancel, aisleless nave, vestry, entrance porch and elaborate bellcote.

[4] Based on the Te Deum, the scenes include the Ascension, the Cherubim and Seraphim, the Apostles, the Prophets, Christian martyrs, and Saints Ambrose and Augustine.