Plaistow was a chapelry of Kirdford in the Middle Ages.  The Sharpe Collection drawing (1805) shows a small half-timbered structure with a small belfry like the former church at Loxwood, which is also in the forest area near the Surrey border.  A large projection to the south may have been accommodation for the priest (1 p9).   The date of this chapel is uncertain, for the detail is domestic in nature and does not look pre-Reformation.  However, a chapel existed by 1520 (ibid) and the most likely time for its building would have been during the upsurge of prosperity in the later C15.  It was replaced at a cost of £1500 (PP125) by J Butler (ICBS) in 1853-54, after he had come into contact with R C Carpenter.  

Built of weathered local sandstone, it is thus in accurate C13 style with a relatively long chancel and a wooden belfry with a slender spirelet.  The Horsham slabs on the south porch could come from the old chapel. The three east lancets are contained in a single arch, the chancel arch has foliage corbels and the elaborate chancel roof has curved braces rising from corbels in the walls.  The only traceried window is the west one.

Fittings

Altar rails: Late C17 with twisted balusters.
Glass:
1.  (East window) C E Kempe, 1897.
2.  (South west nave windows, to north and south) J Powell and Sons, 1915 (Order book).
3.  (West window) Kempe and Co, 1912.
Pews: (Nave) Rustic and certainly pre-C19, though hard to date.

Source

1. W H Godfrey: Guide to the Church of St John the Baptist, Kirdford (Sussex Churches no 12), revised edition 1969