The church is located on top of a locally prominent hill forming the core of the nucleated village of Godshill. The village lies to the N of the Isle of Wight’s southern chalk massif in the south-central area of the island. The church consists of a nave and chancel with no architectural division, a W tower, a wide S aisle, N and S transepts and a S porch. The lower stages of the tower probably date from the 14thc, as does the E end of the church. The S transept is of the late 15th or early 16thc (Lloyd and Pevsner 2006, 153-54). The only Romanesque feature is a loose capital.

This was one of the churches given to Lyre between 1067 and 1071 (Hockey 1981, no. 4). There has never been a manor named Godshill, so the place-name was not recorded in 1086. The settlement did however have its own identity in the first half of the 12thc, for a William de Godeshelle witnessed a tithe agreement 1141x1147 (Hockey 1991,65). The first explicit reference to the church and place-name is Godeshull, 1155x1158 (Hockey 1981, 11).

Due to its size the capital would appear to have been part of a significant opening such as a chancel arch. It has been described as a ‘simple engaged cushion capital of eleventh-century type’ (Renn 1969, 267). Its form can be compared with those in the S transept of Winchester Cathedral, which was constructed from 1079 onwards, and several of the capitals in the crypt at Worcester Cathedral, commenced 1084 and consecrated 1089 (Fernie 2000, fig. 26; Barker and Guy 2008, 5-6).