St John's Church, in Coolhurst, was built in 1839 on land belonging to the Coolhurst Estate.

The dowager marchioness of Northampton, the owner of the estate, donated the site and her successor C. Scrase-Dickins, together with Robert Aldridge of St. Leonard's house, largely underwrote the cost of building which was designed by an unknown architect.

The church, St. John's, known later as the 'forest church', was consecrated, together with its graveyard, in 1839 having been constituted a chapel of ease to Lower Beeding under the Act of 1838.

The Horsham stone slabs of the roof were taken from a blacksmiths in Slaugham that was demolished in 1837 and it is said that most of the interior woodwork was made from trees grown on the estate.