Much of the fabric dates from the 12th century, and it is a Grade I listed building.

A church on the site was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, and there are still traces of Anglo-Saxon stonework in the present building.

[2] The church also houses a famous altarpiece, the Thornham Parva Retable, which is thought to have been created in the 1330s for a Dominican priory,[3][4] probably Blackfriars, Thetford.

The architect Basil Spence died in 1976 at his home at Yaxley, Suffolk, and was buried at Thornham Parva.

[5] The graves of Dame Anne Warburton, the first female British ambassador, and the violinist, Frederick Grinke, also lie within the churchyard.