The tower, which dates from the rebuild, is a strange mixture of architectural styles.
At the south east corner is a mortuary chapel, built from recycled stone. Robert Palmer, who died on 14th May 1544, had asked to be buried in Parham Church and “that a chapel should be built adjoining [ the] choir there or chancel and over me a tomb be made as mine executors shall think meet and honest for a remembrance of me to be had”. That chapel still exists and is now the vestry. No trace of his monument remains.
The church seats nearly 80 people in high box-pews. These, the pulpit and the screen are Georgian. The Squire’s pew is recognisable by its private fireplace.
The original church had a steeple, recorded in 1665, and was roofed with Horsham stone, as mentioned in a presentment of 1641. In 1662 it had no pews but only a pulpit.
The mid fourteenth-century lead font has horizontal rectangular panels, enclosing the legend “+ IHC Nazar” [Jesus of Nazareth] in Lombardic letters. In the spaces between the panels are small shields bearing gyronny within a bordure charged with roundels – the arms of Andrew Peverell, knight of the shire in 1351. Lead fonts are exceptionally rare – there are only 29 in England – but Sussex has two more, at Edburton and Pyecombe.
