Santon Downham is a village and civil parish in the Forest Heath district of Suffolk in eastern England. In 2005 it had a population of 240. The village is located within Thetford Forest on a meander of the River Little Ouse on the Norfolk-Suffolk border.The village was the administrative centre for HM Forestry Commission for many years following the planting of ten of thousands of trees in the Breckland area to form the Thetford Forest.