The small village of Jevington is located in the South Downs to the W of Eastbourne. The church has an Anglo-Saxon (or late 11thc.) W tower, with details restored in a 13thc. style except for the W doorway, which is neo-Romanesque. The doorway probably dates from the 1873 restoration. The nave has a 13thc. N aisle. A relief of Christ (Harrowing of Hell) was discovered under the floor of the W tower by Sir William Burrell in 1785 and is now set at the W end of the nave, on the N side. It is often thought to be Anglo-Saxon. There is a vestry (locked) on the N side of the two-bay chancel.

No church was mentioned in the entries for Jevington in the Domesday Survey of 1086, suggesting that the tower - despite its long-and-short work, herringbone masonry and baluster shafts - may date from the post-Conquest period. No evidence has been found for a W doorway prior to the restoration by H. E. Rumble in 1873 (Builder, 30 August 1873, 692). An account of this restoration reported that 'the stone work throughout has been thoroughly restored' (Eastbourne Gazette, 6 August 1873, 3).

On the relief panel, according to Tweddle (1996), 'there seems little doubt... that this piece belongs to the immediately post-Conquest period. The left-hand animal is plainly in the Urnes style, and the right-hand animal shares elements of this style. The Urnes style developed in Scandinavia c. 1025–50, but probably did not reach England until after the Conquest, according to Wilson and Klindt-Jensen 1966'. The identification of the stone as Caen seems to support this dating.