There are some Norman features - a doorway in the south wall and the reset Norman columns with carved heads at the capitals which support the fourteenth-century chancel arch - but the church was rebuilt in the nineteenth-century.

Its glory is the collection of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian carved stones, the finest of which is the Gosforth Cross. The slender red sandstone tenth-century Viking cross stands 4.2 metres high in its original socket in the churchyard.

The carvings are a mixture of pagan Norse and Christian symbolism. One section depicts the world tree, Yggdrasill, and the evil god Loki being cast into a pit; another panel shows the Crucifixion. Inside the church are other contemporary carved stones and two hogback tombstones.

A little further south, about 1.6km north-east of Holmrook, is Irton Cross; this is another fine example of Anglo-Saxon sculpture dating from the ninth century. Access is via a minor road off the road from Holmrook to Santon Bridge.

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