Some Saxon-era structural elements remain despite 12th-century additions made when Shoreham became prosperous, further extension in the 14th century and a Victorian restoration.

The location of the landing place is not known for certain, and historic claims that it was near Shoreham are now considered unlikely,[1] but a church may have been founded inland next to the River Adur in 481.

[1] In about 1080, he granted the advowson to an abbey in the French town of Saumur which was linked to a locally important priory in Sele (near modern-day Upper Beeding), further up the River Adur.

Sele Priory became the church's patron in its own right in the early 13th century; it then passed into the control of Magdalen College, Oxford before being transferred to the Bishop of Chichester in 1948.

[7] The church was significantly altered in about 1140, but parts of the Saxon structure were retained: the west and north walls of the nave are distinguished from the Norman-era work by their thickness, and there is a blocked doorway.

[7] The tower was provided with a substantial crossing and arches with carvings of bizarre faces: these include King Stephen (the monarch at the time) and his wife Matilda, a cat, an elf and another human figure, conjectured to be the stonemason responsible for the carvings.

[8] The chancel was altered again in the 14th century: it was given a tie-beamed roof,[3] and was extended to form two bays and its apsidal east end was replaced with a straight wall with a new window.

The two-bay chancel is in the Early English style; its east window has an example of reticulated (grid-pattern) tracery.

[4] The Norman tower has three arches on each face—the central one open and slightly larger, flanked by two closed arches—below paired oeils-de-boeuf.