Vernham Dean is a village in the Test Valley district of the county, 7 miles N of Andover, 17 miles NW of Basingstoke, and half a mile E of the Wiltshire border. The church is outside the village centre to the NE. It is a 2-cell building with a gabled aisleless nave having a bellcote over the W gable. The chancel is lower and also gabled, with a small vestry on the N side. Construction is of flint rubble with brick repairs and rendered W facade, stone dressings and bell cote and tiled roofs. The only feature recorded here is the W doorway, certainly 13thc., but included as it contains late variants of the chevron ornament.

Vernham Dean is not recorded in the Domesday Survey because at that time it was still part of the manor of 'Esseborne' (Hurstbourne), held by the King. In 1177 Henry II granted Vernhams Dean to Henry de Bernevall and his heirs, where it remained until 1216-17 when, the rent possibly falling into arrears, Henry III granted the manor to Thomas Basset the Younger. Roger de Bernevall regained possession shortly afterwards, but was killed in battle in 1226, when the king gave custody to his wife's brother, Robert Haget. It later passed to Roger de Bernevall's brother, Reginald. It continued in the Bernevall family until the death of Gilbert de Bernevall in 1277, when it was divided among his surviving relative. It was eventually given to Winchester College.

The church was a chapelry dependant on Hurstbourne Tarrant until 1871, when it became a vicarage in its own right. It was completely restored in 1851 by Arthur Ashpital according to the List Description, but according to The Builder (1851), 'the whole is said to be the design of the curate, the Rev. J. M. Rawlins'.

Bullen dates the W doorway c.1220, which is probably about right on the basis of the stiff-leaf, crocket and dogtooth ornament, although it is unusual to find so much use made of the chevron ornament at that date. He also suggests that the doorway may be reset.