South Weald is a village within the borough of Brentwood, 2 miles W of the town centre. It is surrounded by farmland and includes Weald Country Park to the N of the village. South Weald is built on a netwerk of minor roads in the vee between the A12 and the M25, with the church in the centre of the village. The present S aisle was the medieval nave and chancel: with no division between the two, and a tower at the W end and a S porch. This was a 12thc structure, as indicated by the S doorway. A N aisle was added in the 13thc, and the tower was built in the 15thc. In 1868 S. S. Teulon replaced the aisle with a new nave and a chancel with a N organ room, turning the original nave into a S aisle, refaced the medival walls and restored the tower. Then in 2010 a multi-purpose hall, the Belli Centre, was completed on the N side of the church, attached to the nave by the N dooway. The only Romanesque feature recorded here is the S doorway.

A manor of 2 hides was held by the canons of Holy Cross, Waltham in 1066, which was reduced to 1½ hides by 1086, the lost half hide being in the hands of Geoffrey de Mandeville. A second manor, held by Sprot in 1066 and by Ralph from Robert Gernon in 1086 was assessed at 1 hide. The Holy Cross manor became known as the manor of South Weald. It contained the village and the church, and remained with Holy Cross until the Dissolution. Sprot's manor became Calcott, or Caldecot. From 1275 the advowson of St Peter's was held by the Bishop of London.

RCHME reasonably suggests a mid-12thc date for the doorway. It has points of comparison with several others in the county, from which one should pick out Orsett as almost identical, down to the beaded volute capitals, Heybridge is a simpler version with a diapered tympanum and a segmental lintel with roll corbels, although it has no capitals.