Before 2014, the church consisted of a Norman nave with a S porch and N and S transepts, and a 13thc chancel with a S chapel. A timber-framed bell-turret was built over the S transept and a N vestry was added to the chancel. The N transept was subsumed into a later N aisle.

A major fire, on Thursday 19 June 2014, apparently caused by electrical surges, changed all of that, necessitating rebuilding, and the opportunity was taken to build a completely different type of building, opened in 2022. The church now consists of a rectangular hall-like nave and chancel in one under a single roof, half-hipped at E and W. What remains of the old church is the W facade, the S tower, and the S chapel with its 2-bay arcade, now converted for use as a playroom. On the N side are meeting rooms, a kitchen and lavatories flanking a large open porch giving views to the spacious graveyard in the N side. The only Romanesque feature here is the W facing doorway of the S tower.

Ropley was not recorded in the Domesday Survey, as it was assessed as part of the maor of Bishops Sutton, part of which may have been granted by King Ine to the Bishop of Winchester in 701. In 1066 it was held by Earl Harold, and in 1086 by Count Eustace III of Boulogne. It passed to the crown after Count Eustace's heir, Eustace IV, married Mary of Scotland who gave birth to a daughter, Maud who was to marry King Stephen. In 1136 Stephen exchanged it for his brother, Henry of Blois's manor of Morden in Surrey. The advowson of the church was given by Count Eustace to the Prior and Convent of Merton (Surrey) who remained its patrons until the Dissolution. The tithes of Ropley church were granted by the canons of Merton to Stephen, Chaplain of Bishops Sutton. Ropley church itself was a chapel of Bishops Sutton until 1882 when the parish gained its independence.

The nave is the earliest part of the church, possibly 11thc. The transepts were 12thc., and the chancel was rebuilt in the 13thc and the S chapel added in the same period. The S tower was inserted in the 14thc above the transept, the S porch dated from c.1700, and a N vestry was added in 1846. A restoration in 1896 included the addition of a N aisle which obliterated the N transept, and most of the exterior was refaced at that time.

In 2014 a major fire necessitated a complete rebuilding by Alexander Designs and the church was not reopened until 26 August 2022.

The tower doorway, the only Romanesque feature here, was originally the doorway to the S transept, and provides the evidence that the transept dates from the 12thc. One result of the fire of 2014 was the opportunity 'to create a church building that will not only reflect the past but will provide all the facilities needed for future generations' (Farnham Herald, 9 February 2018). A useful folder of documentation relating to the rebuilding after the fire has been collected by Tim Day of Ropley History (see Bibliography).