The Diocese of Chichester declared St Peter's redundant in 1990, and it is now owned by the Churches Conservation Trust.

The village of Preston was established on a downland site 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north-northwest of Brighton before the time of the Domesday Book.

[3][5] Its main feature of interest was a series of 13th- and 14th-century wall paintings around the chancel arch and the nave, which depicted the Nativity of Jesus, Saint Michael weighing the souls of the dead at the Last Judgment, the murder and martyrdom of Thomas Becket, Doubting Thomas, other saints, and the "Noli me tangere" scene at Jesus's Resurrection.

[4] The church was restored and extended in 1872 by architect James Woodman, who added a porch on the north side and a vestry to the south.

The wall paintings suffered particularly badly, such that only fragments of the Nativity, St Michael and Thomas Becket scenes remained—the others were destroyed.

[4] In its present form, the church consists of a chancel with barrel roof and chamfered arch, nave with no aisles, vestry with an elaborate chimney, and a timber-framed, hipped-roofed porch.

[7] The altar is formed from a table-tomb—the burial place of Edward Eldrington (or Elrington), the lord of the Preston Manor who died in 1515.