Kenton is a village in mid-Suffolk, 13 miles N of Ipswich. The nearest town is Debenham, 2 miles to the SW. The land here is the usual arable farmland of the East Anglian plain. A tributary of the Deben runs to the E of the village, and the church is in the village centre with the moated site of Kenton Hall, now a 16thc. building, half a mile outside the village to the S.

All Saints' church comprises a nave with S aisle and N and S porches, a chancel and W tower. The nave is of flint with a S doorway dating from the end of the 12thc. and a plain N doorway of the same period (not accessible). Both doorways are protected by flint porches: the N (now a vestry) plain and designed by Hakewill in 1871-72; the S more elaborate and 15thc. The nave windows, two on the N and one W of the porch on the S, belong to Hakewill's restoration, and he also lowered the nave roof slightly; the line of the old roof is visible on the tower wall. The S aisle is a two-bay brick structure built by John Garneys, Lord of the Manor, in 1520-22, as a chapel to St John the Evangelist. It occupies only the section of the nave E of the S porch, and can be entered from a doorway in the E wall of the porch. The flint chancel is by Hakewill (1871-72) in a 13thc. style and has two heavy brick buttresses at the E end and a reset plain 12thc. S doorway. The flint W tower is 14thc. with diagonal buttresses and a parapet with flushwork decoration of roundels. The church was restored by Hakewill in 1871-72. Apart from the S doorways to nave and chancel, there is a Purbeck marble font, probably 13thc. but included here.

A manor was held by Beorhtmaer, commended to Eadric, before the Conquest and consisted of 82 acres of ploughland, 2 acres of meadow and woodland for 12 pigs. Another 30 acres were held by two men before the Conquest; one commended to Beorhtweald, the other to Beorhtmaer, and a further 3 acres were held by three free men commended to Eadric. All of this was held by Robert Malet's mother from her son in 1086. Also listed among the holdings of Robert Malet in 1086 were a parcel of 30 acres held by Huna, a free man commended to Eadric before the Conquest, and a manor of 30 acres held by a free man, Wudu-Brun, commended to Eadric and held in 1086 by William Goulafre. This manor also contained half an acre of meadow and a church with 30 acres. A holding of 80 acres was listed under St Edmundsbury Abbey in 1086. This had been held by two free men from Durand, who held it from the abbot before the Conquest, and also included an acre of meadow and woodland for 10 pigs. A final holding, listed under the Bishop of Bayeux, was held before the Conquest by five free men, four commended to Ely abbey and the fifth to Saxi. This consisted of 30 acres, held in 1086 by Ralph de Savenay from Roger Bigod. In the late Middle Ages, the manor appears to have passed from the Ramseys to the Garneys before 1450, when Ralph Ramsey's daughter and heir Anne married Peter Garneys.

Debenham and Helmingham benefice, i.e. Aspall, Debenham and Kenton and Framsden, Helmingham, Pettaugh and Winston.

The S doorway has features of waterleaf capitals and a keeled roll in the arch, pointing to a date in the 1170s or '80s.