The church is probably Norman in origin but was largely demolished in 1863 and rebuilt in 1864. The walls are of flint rubble wall with stone dressings. The west tower has diagonal buttresses and a castellated parapet. The framed list near the south entrance records the name of forty incumbents. Thomas Bagley - 1431 was burnt at the stake in Smithfield for heresy. Henry Grindle 1913-1928 was "tin-kettled" - a form of ostracism designed to drive him out of the parish when he married too soon (according to parishioners) after his wife's death. The following is an account from a contemporary newspaper: VILLAGE 'RAG' ON VICAR. OBJECTIONS TO HIS MARRIAGE. Outside the vicarage of Manuden, Essex, recently was posted a 'picket' of youths, who have been making demonstrations of hostility against the vicar, the Rev. H. B. Grindle, because within a month of his wife's death he married the nurse who had been in attendance during his wife's last illness (says the 'Westminster Gazette'). At the last demonstration a crowd of 300 made a terrific noise with petrol cans, sheet iron and a bugle. ''We are going to carry on every second night, from 10 p.m. until 10.30," said the leader of the 'picket,' "in order to try to move them out of the village." Mrs. Grindle, a comparatively young woman, with dark hair coiled over her ear, interviewed at the vicarage, said: "My husband's first wife died on April 29, and we were married in a Kensington church on May 25. Mr. Grindle's relatives are all pleased at our marriage. We have known each other for some months. The reason for our marriage was simple. My husband's income from the church is so small that he could not afford to stay away and appoint someone to take his place. We married at once because he could not positively come back and live alone. His wife and he had lived devotedly and happily here, and the surroundings would have been very painful to come back to alone, for there is no family. He would gladly have stayed away it he could have afforded it. When we returned there was a demonstration, and panes of glass were broken by stones. Many of the village people are quite nice to us, and I think that those who are demonstrating are mostly irresponsible young people and others who have nothing to do with the church. My husband is ill, and feeling the strain."