Cuthman took the incident as a divine intimation that the time had come to settle, and he thereupon first built for his mother and himself a hut and afterwards a church.

The present church stands on its site.

Cuthman was buried there.

So, also, was Ethelwulf, father of Alfred the Great, whose body afterwards was moved to Winchester.

Alfred the Great had estates at Steyning, as elsewhere in Sussex.
While Cuthman was building his church a beam shifted, making a vast amount of new labour necessary.