The parish of East Bradenham lies in central Norfolk roughly 6 miles southwest of the market town of East Dereham. In reality there is no such village as East Bradenham just a village of Bradenham with a church, and consequently a parish, at each end. Bradenham sits in an area devoid of significant numbered roads, the closest such road being the A1075 road linking East Dereham with Thetford which runs almost 3 miles to Bradenham's southeast. Bradenham sits in prime agricultural land, east of Norfolk's Breckland with its poorer soils here the fertile glacial deposits make for excellent cereal growing. Besides the ubiquitous wheat & barley there are more modern crops such as beet and oil-seed, the whole sitting in large and largely hedge-less fields. Running through the northern edges of Bradenham one finds the infant River Wissey whereby its water-meadows grant a few pastures for a little diversity.

St Mary's church is almost the easternmost building in Bradenham on the southern side of the main lane headed for Shipdham, here named Church Street. Whilst there has been a church here since Norman times little remains of that church as a result of two distinct periods of change. 12th century Norman Romanesque work remains solely as the jambs of a few windows remaining in the chancel. The first major period of change came in that great church-building era of the 14th century whence, begun in the Decorated style and completed in the Perpendicular, the church was almost entirely rebuilt. The early 14th century style of the Decorated is shown well in the four bay arcades and in the clerestory whilst the later half of that century and Perpendicular in style one finds the remainder of the church, notably the western tower and most of the nave and aisle windows. Like most churches, the second period of change came in Victorian times, a major restoration of 1853, followed by work on the tower in 1893 saw the church completed to today's iteration. Whilst Church Street is narrow a well-worn verge on its northern side is indicative of frequent parking. For the photographer the church is something of a challenge, after a shaded pathway through dense trees one finds the church tucked close to similar trees on the churchyard's southern edge removing the favoured aspects from the photographer's portfolio.