MuseumSt Mary's, Stonham Parva, Suffolk, IP14 5JL

St Mary's is a spectacular and airy medieval flintwork church which lies towards the southern border of its former parish and beside the Old Hall, now a farm.  The church has a tower with parapets accented with slender pinnacles.  The nave and chancel are impressively high and inside the double hammerbeam nave roof is a splendid example of medieval craftsmanship.

Stonham Parva, also known as Little Stonham, is located three miles east of Stowmarket.  The name 'Stonham' is the old English for 'stoney ground' or 'stoney place'.  Parva is from the Latin 'parvus' meaning 'small or little'. 

For many years Stonham Parva was held in plurality with nearby Mickfield, where the medieval church was closed in the late 1970s but in 1972 it was united with Earl Stonham, where the church is only a mile away.  Since then, this scattered parish has done much to keep its church intact, but eventually it was decided that St Mary's should cease to be a parish church in January 1990 and was vested to what is now The Churches Conservation Trust.