Elsted was held by Bishop Osbern of Exeter in 1086, and had a church. Osbern the cleric held half a hide; Ralph the priest 1 hide 'which belongs to the church'.
The font was given to Elsted church by St Olave's, Chichester in 1956 (L Fleming 'The Little Churches of Chichester', Chichester Papers 5, 1957, 10). At St Olave's it had stood 'partly on the gravestone of Richard Young' (Chichester Papers, 10), and a photograph shows it in situ (NMR Red Boxes). St Olave's church is now a bookshop.