 The settlement's church was built on a rural site, considered a "picturesque setting", at an unknown date during the Norman period.Most sources date its construction to the late 11th or early 12th century; others offer no more confident attribution than 12th-century, "1066 to 1200" or "mostly Norman".An article published in volume 38 of the "Sussex Archaeological Collections" (1892) dated it to 1150–1180 and attributed its construction to the monks of Sele Priory at nearby Beeding, although a wide-ranging study of Sussex church architecture 15 years later suggested a date of 1070 for the nave and chancel arch—partly based on the lack of buttresses.