This church building is often locked but a key is available nearby. There will be a notice in the church porch with details of where the key is held.

St Mary's Church is somewhat unconventional; it is a tin tabernacle situated next to a ruined church (abandoned in the 17th century). The neighbouring village of Melton Constable experienced a boom in the 1870s when it became a major railway junction of the Midlands and Great Northern Railway. The railway workers put down their religious roots at Burgh Parva in the form of a tin tabernacle. The nearest church was St Peter's, located over a mile away on the estate of Melton Constable Hall, the historical family seat of the Astleys. A competition to design the new church failed to attract a winning entry and a temporary corrugated iron structed was erected, remaining in use to this day. The reredos came from St Philip's Church in Norwich which was bombed. A crack in the war memorial bears witness to a gale which almost blew the church down in 1977.