The church is composed of a simple nave and chancel in one; it was ‘largely rebuilt in 1792’ (Pevsner & Neave 1995, 324). The 18th-century rebuild made a W doorway, and three round-headed windows in the S and E walls, all of which re-used 12^th-century remnants. The church avoided a Victorian restoration, even though plans for restoration were sketched by Temple Moore and never acted upon. Until recently the outside walls were painted white, which resulted in a deterioration of the stonework.

A restoration of the exterior walls was completed between 2005 and 2015 with the assistance of English Heritage. The restoration clearly illustrated that the north arcade was of a 13th-century date; it also exposed four fragments of a twelfth-century string-course which was reused in the E wall. It was found that the arcade, and therefore the nave, had formerly continued one bay west, while the position of the original S doorway is suggested by the presence or absence of a simple plinth course in the (now) W bay of the nave.

Reused original parts outside include a hoodmould over the E window; a single beakhead reset as a keystone at the apex of each of the two S windows; another beakhead and a few voussoirs with an unusual chevron moulding at the head of the W doorway. There is nothing from the Romanesque period to be seen inside the church, which is simple and appears never to have had a chancel arch.

Morcar held 25 carucates here as one manor; however according to the DB the king held them, and another 3 carucates. The value had reduced from £56 to £8. (VCH II, 197, 321.) There was a church and a priest. Historically the church was linked to Hayton.

1. N arcade. Stapleton 1966, 1, says that four pillars of a 13^th-century arcade were uncovered in the N wall during work in 1963 and 1965.

2. The beakheads are similar to the single beakhead reset in the S nave wall at Goodmanham, although further comparisons should be sought. The chevron moulding is unusual for the area, and the only comparison is with Selby Abbey's N arcade, bay 4, made in a 'later Romanesque' phase. If it had a nailhead rather than beading, it might be dated to the same period as the small nailhead on the E window. Fine nailhead is seen at Reighton (N arcade), and also at Easington (N doorway), where beakheads - or anything other than mouldings or waterleaf - would be anachronistic. It is thus difficult to make one arch of both chevrons and beakheads, and yet there is no record of a chancel arch as well as a doorway.

3. The reused string-course in the fabric of the E wall is in a pattern not seen so far in Yorkshire. A comparison has been found at Wilmington (Sussex), also in the chancel walls.

4. The assorted fabric of the walls suggests that the church must have been plastered from the beginning.