"HORNINGSHEATH, (or Horringer), a parish in the hundred of Thingoe, county Suffolk, 2 miles S.W. of Bury St. Edmund's, its railway station and post town. It is a small agricultural parish, and contains the hamlet of Horsecroft. It formerly belonged to the abbots of Bury, who resided here. Previous to 1528 it formed two parishes, distinguished as Great and Little Horningsheath. The land is chiefly arable. The tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £575. The living is a rectory* in the diocese of Ely, value £459, in the patronage of the Marquis of Bristol. The church, dedicated to St. Leonard, is a small edifice with a tower containing six bells. The interior of the church was repaired in 1818, and contains a painted window. The parochial charities produce about £24 per annum, £9 of which goes to the free school built by the Marquis of Bristol. Horringer House and Brooke House are the principal residences. The Marquis of Bristol is lord of the manor and principal landowner. A fair for lambs is hold on Sheep Green on the 4th September.
From The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003
Today, this village is known as Horringer and is an attractive village of some 400 houses situated 2½ miles Southwest of the market town of Bury St Edmunds on the A143 (25 miles East of Cambridge). Dominating the village green is the 14th century church of St Leonard (the patron saint of prisoners). Beside the church is the entrance to Ickworth Park and Ickworth House once the home of the Marquis of Bristol but now a National Trust property.
Many of the houses along The Street are 500 years old; some are thatched. Ickworth Park Primary School is a modern single-storey building. It is situated on St Leonard's Estate which was built from the 1960's to the 1980's.