If ever there were a misnomer it is in naming this as Barningham "Town" for town it certainly is not. Also known as Barningham Winter or plain Barningham there is little to the place beyond a small hamlet and a large formal estate. Barningham sits in northeastern Norfolk about 5 miles southeast of the market town of Holt in a broad area of rural Norfolk with not a A or B road for some miles, an agricultural area dominated by the cereal, oil seed & beet farming. Barningham parish covers a tiny area, just over 800 acres, and is dominated by its Hall built in the early 17th century for the Paston family.

St Mary's church sits within the grounds of Barningham Hall estate and lies in a semi-ruinous state. Only the chancel remains serviceable as a place of worship, the nave is reduced to a head-high set of walls whilst the tower stands open at the top and rather forlorn. In its heyday the church was a fairly typical Norfolk building, the chancel in the earlier Decorated style and nave & tower in the Perpendicular. Having become ruinous, in 1830 an addition (the lower portion with a stepped gable) was added to the chancel to make a small parish church. St Mary is only approachable on foot by footpaths through the estate and stands in an open site with few obstructions to photography.