Exton is a small village in the South Downs National Park, 10 miles SE of the centre of Winchester iin the City of Winchester district of Hampshire. The parish extends more than 5 miles from E to W, but is only about a mile from N to S, with the centre of the village, including the church, centrally sited on the southern edge. The church has a long, aisleless nave of 4 bays with a wooden W bell turret and a S porch. The nave has a S doorway of c.1100, but the windows all date from the 13thc., as does the chancel and its arch. At the E end is a plate tracery double lancet with an oculus. Construction is of flint rubble with stone dressings. The church underwent a thorough restoration in 1847-48, including the addition of a N vestry to the chancel and a S porch to the nave. This is more fully described in the Comments below.

Exton was held by the Bishop of Winchester in 1066 and 1086, when it was assessed at 8 hides. It remained a possession of the Priory of St Swithun until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and in 1542 it was granted to the Dean and Chapter of Winchester.

Much is made in the literature of the thoroughness of the 1847-48 restoration, carried out by the builder Mr Lewis of Westmeon at the expense of Mrs Tiuchet and her niece Mrs ffarington. The church was reopened for divine service on Wednesday, 26 April 1848. The fullest description of the work appears in the Hampshire Telegraph of 29 April 1848, and describes the work as a 'scrupulous restoration ... in the style which characterises the building, viz., - first pointed, or early English, with some admixture of Norman; the flat ceiling of the nave has been removed, and the roof opened to the ridge; a new timber roof of good design is erected over the chancel, which is a remarkably fine one; a new porch of flint, buttressed with free stone, quoins, and dressings, forms the approach on the south side; a new vestry is thrown out from the north side of the chancel, and approached from within by a good, bold doorway, the mouldings of which have been copied from a fine double piscina in the south wall; all the windows have been made good or restored; the unsightly western gallery removed; the pews cut down and rearranged ... and a new and beautiful font, of Caen stone, copied from an ancient example - the gift of J.N. ffarrinton, Esq. - stands appropriately in the aisle near the entrance door.'

The church now appears uniformly of a 13thc date, perhaps 1230 considering the chancel E window with its plate tracery. This makes the S doorway even more puzzling as the only Romanesque feature. Pevsner describes it as 'Norman in its outline', but in its construction it looks suspiciously like a rere-arch inserted on the exterior.