An aisleless church with a C12 nave and a C13 chancel.  The west end was altered in the C14 and other windows are C15 to C17.  There are fine C16 to C18 monuments.

Though the mediaeval dedication is lost, the church is known today as St Peter.  It is modest and stands by a few cottages.  The nave and chancel are of similar width and almost equal length, the latter differentiated by a slightly lower roof and their walls are of flint, mostly rendered.  The nave is not earlier than the C12 - its proportions are too broad and low.  The chancel appears C13, with a south lancet and partially renewed doorway, though the walling of its western parts could be earlier.  Its crownpost roof is probably also C13.  The nave roof has trussed rafters and may be C14, when the west end was rebuilt with a belfry, probably that shown on the Sharpe Collection drawing (1803).  The four-centred west doorway and windows, including the west one with panelled tracery are, however, C15 at the earliest and may be rather later than the present chancel windows, which are also C15.  Both the square-headed side ones and the large five-light east window are of a form found soon after 1400.  The main lights of the latter have trefoiled heads and the unusual panelling of the head is not straight along the transom at the bottom, but curved; the tops of the centre three are trefoiled.  On the stops of the label are the arms of Gunter and Bohun.

There was probably never any division between nave and chancel except a roodscreen, parts of which were there in 1871 (1 p13) but is now gone.  The south nave window of two uncusped lights, the doorway and porch are perhaps C18.  There were two modest restorations in the C19.  About 25 years before Arnold wrote (i e around 1845), the interior was restored (ibid) and most of the pleasing fittings probably date from then.  This probably includes the pews - those in the south western part of the nave have doors, possibly because they were reserved for one or more of the major landowners in the parish.  The present divide between nave and chancel probably dates from this time also - it was certainly there by 1850, the date of Adelaide Tracy’s drawing (I p19).   It has traceried arch-braces and though the Royal Arms above are C18, the elaborate cusping looks C19. 

The second restoration in 1875-76 by L W Ridge (CDK 1876 pt 2 p92) probably included the renewal of exterior stonework.  Ridge could be cavalier with more recent features and his retention of the post-Reformation work in the nave may result from the limitations of a budget of £320.  He was probably responsible for redesigning the belfry, with louvres and an overhanging spirelet. 

Fittings and monuments

Aumbry: (East wall, south of window) Square, combined with a similar piscina.  It is probably early C15 like the window.
Font: Heavily repaired tub, possibly C12 in origin, with a roll-moulding on the rim.
Glass: (east window) C Whall, 1918.  (www.stainedglassrecords.org retrieved on 18/3/2013).
It commemorates World War I and shows his characteristic glowing colours.
Monuments: (All on the north side of the chancel to members of the Gunter family and showing the development of monuments between the C16 and the C18).
1.  Sir Hugh Gunter (d1557) and his wife. It probably dates from the 1520s and is one of a group of tombs found mainly in the Selsey area, with a flat-topped crested canopy with a four-centred head and a central pendant.  On top are three shafts, each with a carved finial.  Though the quality of carving is not high, it is well preserved.  In low relief, Sir Hugh and his wife kneel in front of their children adoring the Risen Christ.  This has been set in the back of the tomb, but it is unlikely to be earlier, as has been suggested (BE p311).  Renaissance influence is limited to the supporters of the arms beneath the cresting, on one side swans and on the other putti.
2.  Sir George Gunter (d1624) and his wife.  Painted figures of the deceased face each other across a prayer desk in a large arched niche, topped by figures representing Justice and Charity.  In place of overt religious symbols is a fulsome inscription.  The over-bright paint replaced the original in the 1990s.
3.  Sir Charles Nicholl (d1733), whose mother was a Gunter.  The bust has been attributed to J M Rysbrack, on the strength of which efforts were made to remove it from the church and to replace it by a cast (Church Monuments Society Newsletter 16/1 (2000) p19).  An application for a faculty to do so was refused (CT 15 Nov 2001) and so far, the monument has remained intact.  It is restrained Palladian in style, of grey and white marble with a bust under a rounded pediment.   An archaic survival is the gilded funerary helm and gauntlets above.  There used to be an iron surround, made by Thomas Wragg, a London smith, who in 1740 charged £16 4s 6d (E Saunders p364).
Piscina: See under aumbry. 
Royal Arms: (See above) Painted, of George II. 

Source

1. F H Arnold: Racton, SAC 23 (1871) pp1-19

Plan

Measured plan by W D Peckham in VCH 4 p117