St Marys, Thornham Parva

We had a lovely and leisurely drive around Mid Suffolk this afternoon and found this delightful little thatched church at Thornham Parva. Its structure is largely Norman and is Grade 1 listed.
It is also beautiful inside with medieval wall paintings, a glass engraved memorial window and a 14th century retable, the best preserved of its kind in the UK, which is only part of a much larger altarpiece thought to have once stood in the priory at Thetford, Norfolk. The rest of the piece can be found in Musee de Cluny in Paris. It is thought the piece was rescued and hidden after the Anglican reformation destroyed the priory. The retable was found in a barn in a neighbouring village in the 1920's and donated to St Mary's. In recent times it was conserved and preserved by the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and now stands proudly behind alarmed glass.