The parish lies to the south of the River Deben - neighbouring villages include Kettleburgh, Charsfield and Letheringham.

The parish council is combined with Cretingham and Monewden,[2] with Hoo itself having one of the smallest populations in Suffolk[3] with 86 residents recorded at the 2001 census.

The parish church, located to the north of the village centre and adjacent to Hoo Hall, is a Grade II* Listed building.

[4] The ecclesiastical parish is joined with Charsfield and services are still held regularly in the church which was threatened with redundancy in the 1970s.

[5] The parish has a number of other 16th-century buildings and two medieval moated sites to the south of the village centre, both scheduled monuments.