Of the early Norman 11thc. church, only the nave and tower survive. Since the demolition of the transepts and chancel, the tower has served as the chancel. An addition at W end was built in 1931. Romanesque sculpture is found on the S nave doorway, on a column reset in the W gable and in the tower and transept arches.

In the late 11thc. Bramber was an easily defensible port on the River Adur, with a natural mound on which the Normans erected a castle. The castle became the administrative centre for Bramber Rape. Now a ruin, it is in the hands of the National Trust.

Around 1073 William de Braose built a collegiate church just outside the castle at Bramber. It lay in the parish of Steyning, which was owned by Fecamp, and had no parochial rights of its own. It was given to the abbey of St Florent de Saumur before 1086. By 1096, possibly on account of conflict with Fecamp, the college had been dissolved and its endowments transferred to Sele Priory at Beeding. The church was described as a chapel in the 12thc., but had become a parish church by c.1250.

The fortunes of the church followed that of the town, as the harbour silted up. The transepts were demolished in the 14thc. and 15thc. In 1526 the parish was united with Botolphs. The church was used as a gun emplacement for attacking the castle in 1642, and by the mid-18thc. the chancel and tower were ruinous. The chancel was demolished and the tower rebuilt c.1785. The church was restored in c.1840, but a more major restoration took place in 1871. The W porch and vestry were built in 1931.

Nairn's description of the capitals seems somewhat unfair: ' . . . the crossing capitals . . . are a perfect illustration of Norman naivete. Not only crude volutes, but also carved heads and (very rare) what seems to be a fox-and-goose. "Seems to be", because the carving is so crude that it is difficult to say - and not a strong, moving crudeness, either. Shapes are spattered over the capital as though the carver had only a few hours of life left and desperately wanted to record some or any message. This is a steep decline from the expressiveness and inventiveness of Late Saxon art, at least in Sussex' (Nairn and Pevsner, 1965).

The capitals are all 'volute capitals' a sub-Corinthian type common in late 11thc. Normandy. Other, more orthodox, examples in Sussex can be found at Battle and Sompting.

The capitals of the S transept arch may be completely modern (1871?). If so, they drew on the W arch capitals for inspiration.