Silchester is a village in the Basingstoke and Deane district in the far north of the county. The village is 5 miles N of Basingstoke and adjacent to the border with Berkshire. The church is of flint with the remains of render overall. It has a 2-bay aisled nave with a shingled timber W bell turret and a short timber shingled spire. The aisleless chancel is longer than the nave and there is no chancel arch. There were once porches to N and S, but only the N remains, the S having been replaced by a large extension with a parish room and the usual kitchen and lavatory. The nave is 12thc and the N aisle was added in the late 12thc, while the S aisle was added in the mid-14thc. The long chancel belongs to the early 13thc. The timber supports of the tower occupy the W end of the nave.

Silchester is well known as the home of the Celtic tribe of the Atrebates, and later for the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum settled in the 1stc. AD. Above ground remains are dominated by the town wall which runs alongside the E end of the parish church. In 1066 there were two estates in Silchester: one of 5 hides which Alestan had held from King Edward in 1066, and which was held in 1086 by Ralph Bluet from Willian de Eu; the other of 3 hides which Cypping had held from Earl Harold in 1066, and was held in 1086 by Ralph de Mortimer. This latter passed to the Bluets, and thereafter there was only one manor in Silchester. From the 13thc the overlordship had passed to the Earl of Pembroke as Earl Marshal, and thence to the Earls of Norfolk after 1245. The Lordship of the manor passed from Ralph Bluet to his son, Ralph, who was holding in 1167. Ralph Bluet was also holding in 1204, 1228 and 1233, but they might not all have been the same man. In 1287 the owner, John Bluet, accompanied his overlord the Earl of Norfolk on the king's service in Wales. Later medieval history of the manor will be found in the VCH.

The advowson of the church has followed the ownership of the manor.

The chancel was restored in 1872-73, and the remainder, along with a rebuilt N porch and a new S porch and the replacement of the pews with benchs was complete by the time of the reopening of the church in 1878. The architect was T. H. Wyatt. A new extension was added to the S side of the nave in 2008

The font fragment is said to be the original font of the church (Boon), but no reason is given to explain why, if that is so, only a fragment remains. It appears to be a clunch copy of the Purbeck type of font, but there are no local comparisons known to the author. Boon suggests a mid-12thc. date. Neither Pevsner nor the revised edition of Bullen recorded the font fragment, and the List Description missed it too as well as inaccurately describing the arcade pier capital as a cushion. Bullen dates the N arcade c.1200, while Pevsner was cagier, suggesting 1210 at the latest.