The parish of Cley-next-the-Sea sits on Norfolk's northern North Sea coast roughly midway between the port of Wells and the seaside resorts of Sheringham & Cromer, it is roughly 7 miles east of Wells. Cley was formerly a significant port, as can readily be seen from the occupations of the fathers in this transcript. It was also, for a while, a market town but that status lapsed. Cley had one brief brush with history as in the early 15th century Prince James of Scotland was forced ashore at Cley during a storm whilst en-route to France and was held captive for many years by Henry IV. Today Cley is just a large coastal village sitting on the A149 road which follows the former shoreline with extensive tracts of saltmarshes stretching a further half mile or so to the shingle bank that forms, eventually, Blakeney Point. Cley's port, while much smaller than that of Wells, was noted for the import of timber, coal, tallow & oil-cake whilst it exported Norfolk's agricultural products mainly to the Low Countries. Sadly the channel linking Cley suffered from silting and is nowadays more used for pleasure craft than in a commercial use. Today Cley is probably most famous for those saltmarshes being the home of one of England's finest nature reserves, a flagship on a coast littered with reserves and famous for hosting many rare birds over the years. Cley mainly earns its living from tourism today and is an important stopover site on Norfolk coastal trail.

St Margaret's church sits almost 3/4 of a mile south of the A149 on Newgate Green, Cley's inland portion following the eastern banks of the Glaven. St Margaret's (St Margaret of Antioch to give its full title) is a large church as befits the substantial population of the port. The church is a mixture of Decorated and Perpendicular styles with the former style the dominant feature. The origins of the building lie in the 14th century and comparisons of this Decorated work have been made with many of the features in the city of Norwich notably Etherlbert's Gate to the Cathedral Close. Pevsner singles out the south transept, south porch and the clerestory as the best features of the building but calls the whole "striking and improbable-looking". Changes have been made across all of the centuries and right up to 1973, when the incongruous roof tiles were added. The church sits on Church Road, a narrow lane leading off the Holt Road and sits opposite the splendid green. The view from the green, with the church sitting in its elevated position is exceptional, the views of the northwestern tower less so but they are unimpeded by obstructions within the extensive churchyard.