The parish of Bodney lies in southwestern Norfolk roughly 9 miles north of the Suffolk market town of Brandon. Bodney is a tiny place which sits on the B1108 road which runs from Norwich through Watton to meet the A1065 (Swaffham to Brandon) road. Bodney consists of merely a few scattered farms and cottages sitting to the east of the B1108's crossing of the River Wissey. The parish occupies the poor and sandy soils of Breckland and whilst some arable farming would have occurred, the raising of rabbits in the extensive warrenries was a notable local occupation. The presence of flint nodules within the glacial soils also helped with the development of flint extraction for use in spark generation for lighting gas and other flammable materials. In more modern times the open countryside of Breckland has been the favoured landscape for the British Army to confiscate and fence the extensive STANTA Battle Area which nowadays surrounds Bodney on 3 sides with much of the parish out-of-bounds to public access.

St Mary's church sits on the northern side of the B1108 at the top of the shallow hill heading eastwards from the Wissey's crossing. Bodney's congregation has ever been small, fewer than 100 parishioners at times, and St Mary is, in consequence, an appropriately small church. Consisting simply of an undivided nave and chancel in a single space and all topped off by a western bellcote, the church owes its origins largely to the 14th century. The extensive Victorian restoration has, however, masked much of the church's dating detail but the chancel arch remains intact from medieval times and indicates the age, the chancel arch often being the earliest portion of a church's interior. Indications are present in the form of reused Saxon masonry to suggest a much earlier origin. The Victorian restoration is not dated in Pevsner but was obviously thorough as all windows were clearly replaced albeit in the same style as the original Perpendicular. The B1108 is a fast road so it is welcome that a small pull-in area sits alongside to enable parking for a visit. A rough track leads north to the entrance to a churchyard that is compact and has closely surrounding trees, care is needed by the photographer in selecting the better aspects from the limited array present.