Empshott church is located in an elevated, secluded village of scattered farms and woodland in rural E Hampshire, S of Selborne. Although small reset windows in the N and S walls of the W porch and in the N wall of the chancel are considered to be Norman, the church dates largely from c.1200, with major campaigns of renovation and rebuilding c.1624-26 and c.1867-68.

The building comprises: a W porch; a W bell turret with a glazed lantern beneath the bell stage; a nave with elaborate roof trusses; N and S aisles which have been greatly reduced in width but retain four-bay arcades; a reinforced chancel arch, and a chancel which once opened into N and S chapels. The S chapel has been replaced by a vestry.

The nave arcades date from c.1200. Stylistically they are Early English, like the chancel, but the S arcade includes scallops and cusped fluting, indicating the transitional nature of the ensemble. A Purbeck font of similar date stands at the W end of the nave.

The manor of Empshott (Hibesete) was held by Geoffrey Marescal, or Geoffrey de Venuz, in 1086. It was still in the hands of the Venuz family in the 13thc.

No church was mentioned in 1086. In the mid-12thc the advowson was granted to Southwick Priory, Portchester, which was founded in 1133. Confirmation of this by Papal Bull reveals that a chapel (‘the chapel of Ymbesieta’) existed by 1181 at the latest. On the evidence of the architecture, this was replaced by a church c.1200. The church, dedicated to St Lawrence, remained attached to Southwick Priory until the Dissolution.

The building presumably fell into disrepair prior to its renovation, supposedly at the behest of Lancelot Andrews, Bishop of Winchester, c.1624-26. As well as providing new (dated) furnishings, this campaign may have involved the addition of the W porch and W tower, the clearance of the chapels N and S of the chancel, and the reduction of the aisles. A sketch of c.1780 shows the church from the SE, with the chancel lit by a large mullion and transom E window (illustration from church guidebook), potentially of c.1624-26 date.

In 1838 and 1859 the church underwent repairs, but these soon failed. More significant work was commissioned c.1867-68. The W tower was rebuilt (to designs by a Mr Pusey, presumably either Frederick or William Puzey, carpenters in the nearby village of East Tisted), the nave and chancel were re-roofed, the chancel was largely rebuilt with buttressing, and a vestry was added.

The S and N nave arcades are roughly contemporaneous but not identical. In each case, an octagonal central pier is flanked by circular piers. The two main differences involve the form of the responds and the decoration of the capitals. The N arcade, not featured here, has crocket capitals and a W respond with flat-leaf capitals flanking a head corbel. The chancel arch belongs to the same campaign.

The nave arcades are dated c.1200 by Bullen et al., who suggest – like many other writers – that the S arcade predates the N arcade.

The S arcade demonstrates that scallop capitals continued to form part of the emerging Early English aesthetic, alongside pointed arches and dogtooth, around 1200. The form of the scallop capital on pier 1 is similar to one at nearby High Cross, where a type of fluting is also found.

The font has been variously dated to c.1190 (VCH) and early 13thc (Bullen et al.). The popularity of this type of font, executed in either Purbeck or Sussex marble, endured into the 13thc in Hampshire, Sussex and further afield, and so the Empshott example is probably contemporary with the church it occupies. It may be dated c.1200.