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Wilmington church has a nave with a N porch, a bell-turret over the W end and a two-bay S aisle with a 13thc. arcade. Towards the E end of the nave, on the N side, is a chapel (now vestry). The chancel is entered through a Victorian arch (1883; Paley and Austin), but retains two original Norman windows and sections of a string course carved with sawtooth. A 12thc. relief depicting the Virgin and Child is set in the N wall. The font dates from the early 13thc., but its form continues a 12thc. tradition.
The church was restored in 1883.
The relief was reset fron the exterior wall of the chancel in 1948. It was cleaned between 1999 and 2026 (compare photographs).
Pevsner decided that the figure set in the chancel wall seemed 'male and 13thc.'. Wilmington Priory (Benedictine, f. c.1100), next to the church, was under scaffolding at the time of the CRSBI visit and closed to the public.
Rev. G. M. Cooper, 'Illustrations of Wilmington Priory and Church' Sussex Archaeological Collections 4, 1851, 60.
I. Nairn and N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Sussex, Harmondsworth 1965, 630.
