Burpham has a W tower, a nave with a S aisle, N and S transepts and a vaulted chancel with a Victorian arch (1869). There are Norman windows in the W and N walls of the N transept.

The church has Anglo-Saxon origins, and it has been suggested that the transepts developed out of porticus (compare Worth and Stoughton). It is mentioned in the Domesday Book, and was later givn to Lewes Priory. It was subjected to piecemeal revamping in the late 12thc. or early 13thc. The S aisle arcade was blockedc.1800, and restored in 1869. The chancel arch, and possibly the SW nave arch, dates from 1869 (Sir T G Jackson).

The S transept arch probably dates from the third quarter of the 12thc. The arcading on the capitals of the nave E arch, outer order, is of a type more commonly found on late 12thc. fonts than on capitals. This arch dates from the late 12thc. The chancel is Transitional, and the vaulting of c.1180-1200. It is an example of how multi-scallop capitals lingered for longer than other Romanesque forms in West Sussex.