Little Downham is a village in the East Cambridgeshire district, 2 miles N of the centre of Ely. The church is on the N side of the main road through the village and has a 5-bay aisled nave with clerestorey and S doorway under a 15thc. porch, an aisleless chancel with a N vestry of 1900, and a W tower. The earliest parts are 12thc. (the lower storey of the tower). For the rest, the elaborate S doorway is early 13thc. in its structure but 12thc. in its decorative repertoire. This is described below, but such other early 13thc. features as the tower arch and nave arcades fall outside the scope of the CRSBI. The church is of mixed flint, pebble and stone, except for the N aisle, of brick, which was restored in 1912. Other restorations took place in 1897 and 1899.

Land in Downham was bought by Aethelwold and Brithnoth c.970, and given to Ely Abbey, and a further 2 hides were given by Siverth. In 1086, therefore, the manor belonged to the demesne of Ely Abbey. When Ely became a cathedral in 1109, Downham was allotted to the bishop, and the manor house became a Bishops' Palace and remained so for ma=ore than 500 years. The advowson of the church was always with the manor and was still held by the Bishop in modern times (VCH).

It is probable that the arch of the S doorway has been constructed from elements of two doorways. Certainly the heads of the second order sit very uneasily with the 13thc. structure of chamfered jambs, beaked imposts and pointed arch, both structurally and stylistically. The chevron archivolt cannot be a label but has no supports to make it an order, neither does it fit very well.