Ixworth is 6 miles NE of Bury St Edmunds, and Ixworth Thorpe (the suffix indicating a marginal settlement) lies 2 miles to the NW of Ixworth and consists of the church and scattered farms and houses along the road to Thetford. The land here is flattish with low rolling hills and is given over to arable cultivation. All Saints church is alongside the road on the southern edge of the settlement. It has a nave and chancel and a low W tower of red brick with a timber bell-turret. The nave is only slightly higher than the chancel, and they share a thatched roof. The nave has a two-storey 15thc. brick S porch, and nave and chancel are mortar rendered. Both nave doorways are 12thc., the N now blocked, and part of the 12thc. chancel arch remains on the north. There is a N rood-stair entrance alongside it, but this is later. All the nave windows were replaced in the 15thc. The chancel is 13thc., with small pointed lancets surviving on the N side and a plain S doorway of the same period. The piscina dates fromc.1300, the S chancel window is 15thc. and the E window has wooden glazing bars and tracery — probably 18thc. Repairs were carried out by D. E. Nye and partners of Surrey in 1961-63, and repairs to the tower proposed in 1970-72 were not proceeded with. The N and S nave doorways are recorded here.

Before the Conquest Ixworth Thorpe was held as a manor by Thegn Acwulf. In 1086 the manor was held by Sasselin. It consisted on one carucate of ploughland and six acres of meadow with pigs, sheep and two cattle. There was also a mill. Small parcels were held here too; 30 acres held by a free man of the king, 8 acres held by Howard de Vernon from William d'Ecouis, 16 acres held by two free men from the abbey of St Edmundsbury, and 30 acres held by a free man from Peter de Valognes. Byc.1250 the manor had passed to the Pakenham family, and it became the portion of Sir William of Pakenham's second son, Thomas.

Blackbourne Team benefice, i.e. Ixworth with Ixworth Thorpe, Bardwell, Honington with Sapiston, Troston, Euston, Fakenham Magna, Ingham with Ampton, Gt and Lt Livermere and Barnham.

The Romanesque work is simple and early, perhaps before 1100, as attested by the narrow proportions of the doorways and the splayed opening of the S doorway.