This church does not incorporate any obvious 12thc. fabric. It has a W tower, a long nave with a 13thc. (Early English) clerestorey, later aisles with 6-bay arcades, and a square chancel with a N chapel.

A church at Salehurst is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Walker repeats a local tradition that 'this font was given to Salehurst by Richard Coeur de Lion as a thanks offering'. Among Richard Hussey's drawings in the Bodleian is one of the font, in 1830, with the note: 'bowl re-worked and top moulding quite altered, 1865' (Zarnecki).

The font has been variously dated to the 12thc. or 13thc. (Zarnecki and Pevsner respectively).

There are grounds for considering the font to be inspired by one that originally stood in Battle Abbey, which is nearby. In April 1999 a small Purbeck marble carving of a salamander was excavated from the Abbey by English Heritage (see entry under Fort Cumberland, Hants). Similarities between its form and that of the Salehurst salamanders suggests that it also adorned a font base. It is thus possible to suggest that the Salehurst font is a local copy of the higher quality font which stood in Battle Abbey. It probably dates from the 12thc.