Thornham Parva is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Mid Suffolk Mid Suffolk is a local government district in Suffolk, England. The district is primarily a rural area, containing just three towns, being Stowmarket, Needham Market and Eye. Its council was based in Needham Market until 2017 when it moved to sha ...

district of

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

in eastern

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Located to the north of sister village Thornham Magna and around five miles south of Diss, in 2005 its population was 50. By the time of the 2011 Census populations of less than 100 were not maintained separately and this village was included in the population of Thornham Magna.

St Mary's Church

The small, thatched St Mary's Church is a Grade I listed building. It has early 14th-century wall paintings, on the south wall, the early years of Christ and on the north wall, the martyrdom of St Edmund. There is a circular window in the west wall of the nave that is said to be late Anglo-Saxon as well as the famous

retable A retable is a structure or element placed either on or immediately behind and above the altar or communion table of a church. At the minimum, it may be a simple shelf for candles behind an altar, but it can also be a large and elaborate struct ...

. Architect

Basil Spence Sir Basil Urwin Spence, (13 August 1907 – 19 November 1976) was a Scottish architect, most notably associated with Coventry Cathedral in England and the Beehive in New Zealand, but also responsible for numerous other buildings in the Moderni ...

died in 1976 at his home in

Yaxley, Suffolk Yaxley is a small village just west of Eye in Suffolk, England. The name means 'cuckoo-clearing'. Church of St. Mary Pevsner describes the north porch of the 12th-century church as 'one of the most swagger in Suffolk'. Inside the church are ...

and was buried at Thornham Parva. The graves of Dame

Anne Warburton Dame Anne Warburton (8 June 1927 – 4 June 2015) was a British diplomat who was the first female British ambassador. She served as British Ambassador to Denmark from 1976 to 1983 and British Permanent Representative to the United Nations in ...

, the first female British ambassador, the violinist, Frederick Grinke, and Gareth Jones, "founding father" of the English law of restitution, also lie within the churchyard.

Thornham Parva Retable

The Thornham Parva Retable is a long medieval

altarpiece An altarpiece is a painting or sculpture, including relief, of religious subject matter made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting or sculpture, ...

, thought to have been created in the 1330s for a Dominican Priory. It is the largest surviving altarpiece from the English Middle Ages. It survived the reformers of the 16th Century, who raged against idolatry and destroyed most of England's medieval culture, by being removed from the priory. It was discovered in 1927 in a loft at Thornham Hall. The local landowner,

Lord Henniker Baron Henniker, of Stratford-upon-Slaney in the County of Wicklow, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1800 for Sir John Henniker, 2nd Baronet, who had previously represented Sudbury and Dover in the House of Commons. His son ...

donated it to the church of Thornham Parva where his brother was parson. The origins of the retable were a puzzle but the picture itself provided vital clues. The figures pinpointed links with the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

. At either end are St Dominic and St Peter Martyr, joint patrons of the Dominicans. St Catherine and St Margaret of Antioch were the order's mascots. The Apostles Peter and Paul, who were believed to have spoken to St Dominic, all point towards Dominican interest. The presence of St Edmund suggests an East Anglian link. John the Baptist's figure might seem more obscure, but the benefactors of the Dominican Priory at

Thetford Thetford is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road (England), A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, coverin ...

John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey John de Warenne (24/30 June 1286 - June 1347), 7th Earl of Surrey, was the last Warenne Earl of Surrey. Life John was born on either 24 or 30 June 1286 and baptised on 7 November of that year.He was the son of William de Warenne, the only son ...

and

Edmund Gonville Edmund Gonville (died 1351) was an English priest who founded Gonville Hall at the University of Cambridge in 1348, which later was re-founded by John Caius to become Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Gonville Hall was his third foundation. ...

would have expected their namesakes to be part of the finished painting. The retable returned to Thornham Parva church in 2003, following eight years of restoration by the

Hamilton Kerr Institute The Hamilton Kerr Institute is a branch of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridgeshire, England, dedicated to the study and conservation of easel paintings. It is also part of the University of Cambridge. Facilities and logistics The institute w ...

in Cambridge. Using sturgeon glue, applied with tiny dabs of cotton buds, inch by inch the layers of grime were removed to reveal rich gold and glowing autumnal palette of translucent reds, purples and greens which the original artist used.

References

{{authority control Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Mid Suffolk District