There is a full history of St James, Heyshott on the Under the Downs website, here , from its origins in the 1100s.

St James was built in the 1200s, replacing an earlier chapel, which is mentioned in documents from the mid-1100s, and from which it is possible that the font survives. The church we know now was built of local stone and wood, with its first bell dated at least a century later, in or before 1400.

A major restoration in 1885 to preserve the church, by then in poor condition, further shaped it, so that all the internal fittings - except for that Norman font - date from then. The Victorians also added a new chancel, redesigning the chancel arch, widened the north aisle, and built the church porch.

Our beautiful churchyard surrounds the church and is itself surrounded by trees, hedges and, on the road-side, a flint wall. It has been mapped - with a search engine for burial plots also to be found on Under the Downs - and has six Commonwealth war graves.