There are no records giving a precise date, but we do have some clues that give us a rough idea. Over the north (main) entrance you may have noticed pieces of decorated stone carved in a circular arch. This is Norman carving, which suggests our church dates from the early 1100's. However it is likely that these stones were found in the grounds and placed in their present position by people restoring the church in the 19^th century, Victorian times. Nevertheless, there may have been an earlier Anglo-Saxon church here as referred to in "What's in a Name"

You may feel our church is quite narrow, but it is the only one in the district that preserves the width of the original Norman building. If you stand in the main body of the church and look up towards the East End, you will clearly see that the axes of the nave and the chancel are not in alignment. This is called "deviation".

There is no arch between the colourful chancel and the rather plain nave. Many Thurrock churches are without this chancel arch, and it is safe to assume that lack of suitable building material is the reason for this deficiency.

Two hundred years after it was built, the chancel was extended eastwards and in the following century the nave was extended westwards. It was at this latter time that the tower was erected and the stairway to the rood loft built. The original church would have looked about the size and shape of a stone barn. Its walls were built of flint and rubble construction and a careful look at the surface of the exterior walls (ignoring recent restoration) shows the change from one period to another. The Normans used whole flints, whereas later builders faced their work with knap of half flints.