Only the chancel of the old church survived in its harbourside location of "sequestered leafiness",[1] resembling a cemetery chapel in the middle of its graveyard.

It was rededicated to St Wilfrid—7th-century founder of a now vanished cathedral at Selsey—and served as a chapel of ease until the Diocese of Chichester declared it redundant in 1990.

The tiny chapel, which may occupy the site of an ancient monastery built by St Wilfrid,[2] is protected as a Grade I Listed building.

The parish of Selsey is in the far southwestern corner of Sussex and was once an island: the English Channel lies to the east and south, and Pagham Harbour forms the northern boundary and originally had a connection to the sea on the west side as well.

[9] Although the monastery, at Selsey, had disappeared by the 11th century, its site was not eroded by the sea and survived as a "delightfully secluded location"[1] on what had become a peninsula.

[3] By the late 12th century,[3] a church occupied the isolated site; some sources suggest it may have replaced a Saxon building, but there is very little evidence for this.

[4] Selsey village grew after 670 acres (270 ha) of common land were enclosed in 1830: new roads and housing were built, and it became a minor seaside resort.

"I must go on with the service/For such as care to attend" he announced; and when the candles were lit for the start of the service, an old donkey and a "wet, yoke-weary bullock" wandered into the church and stayed until dawn broke, listening to Eddi preaching.

[2][22] The tale is apocryphal—and may have been based on a traditional story local to the Manhood Peninsula[2]—but Wilfrid's own chaplain during his ministry at Selsey was Eddius Stephanus (Stephen of Ripon), which inspired the name of the priest.

[23] Originally the church had an aisled nave with a four-bay arcade (three bays dating from the 1180s and another added about 50 years later), a porch and a 16th-century tower with diagonal buttresses.

[3] The remaining chancel of the church is a simple Early English Gothic building with original lancet windows in the north and south walls.

In the form of a triptych, it shows them kneeling and facing a central panel which has now been defaced beyond recognition but which would have shown a Crucifixion or Trinity scene.

[1] The 20th-century stained glass consists of a 1969 window by Carl Edwards, commemorating women and featuring an image of the now demolished All Saints Cathedral in Cairo, and a 1982 piece by Michael Farrar-Bell which portrays the nature reserve at Pagham Harbour and its animals and birds.