Darsham is a village in E Suffolk, 5 miles N of Saxmundham and 3 miles inland from Dunwich. It stands in rising arable land in the valley of one of the small tributaries that drain into the Minsmere river and eventually reach the sea via a sluice S of Dunwich. All Saints is a flint church comprising a nave with a S porch, a chancel and a W tower. The S walls of the nave and chancel are rendered. The nave has 12thc. lateral doorways; the N blocked with brick and the S protected by a knapped flint porch of 1887. To the E of the N doorway traces of a blocked window remain – possibly round-headed. The external angles have large quoins of rough ashlar, pointing to an early 12thc. date. The masonry of the N wall indicates that the nave was heightened, probably in the late-15thc. when the windows were added. Inside, the remains of a rood stair survive at the SE of the nave. The windows were replaced in the 15thc. The chancel is long with a pointed lancet towards the E on the N side. The E wall was rebuilt in the 19thc. with a plain pointed triplet in the Early English style. Other chancel windows date from the 14thc. to the 16thc. The tower is tall and slender and dates from the 15thc. Bequests for its construction were made between 1460 and 1505. It is of flint and septaria with diagonal buttresses and a battlemented parapet, both with flushwork decoration. The W window and bell-openings have 15thc. tracery. It was repaired in 1989-91. The two nave doorways are described below.

Before the Conquest, Alwine the priest held 30 acres of land as a manor, along with a free man who held two acres. There was half a church with 6 acres and an acre of meadow. This land was held by the king in 1086. A free man held eight acres before the Conquest, recorded under Count Alan's lands in 1086. Eadric, a free man, held 94 acres as a manor before the Conquest, with two acres of meadow. This was held by Robert Malet in 1086. Blaecmann held 30 acres as a manor before the Conquest, along with two acres of meadow, and a free man commended to Blaecmann held another 22 acres of ploughland. In 1086 these lands were held by Walter fitzRichere from Robert Malet. Another manor, of 60 acres, was held by Eadric before the Conquest and by Fulcred from Robert Malet in 1086. It included two acres of meadow. Robert Malet’s demesne in 1086 included four acres held by a free man before the Conquest. Ansketil the priest, Roger Bigod’s chaplain, held one carucate of land from Roger Bigod in 1086, that had belonged before the Conquest to seven free men. Six acres of this holding were claimed by Robert Malet.

Pevsner describes the doorways as 'badly treated by time', and this fact makes dating difficult. The proportions of the S doorway, its capital forms and the knotwork decoration suggest an early 12thc. date, probably before 1120.