The parish of Cranwich lies in southwestern Norfolk roughly 6 miles north of the Suffolk market town of Brandon. Cranwich sits on the A134 road, which connects Thetford with King's Lynn midway between Mundford and Northrepps. Cranwich is a tiny place with just a few farms and cottages stationed along either side of the A134 and with no defined village as such. Cranwich stands upon the light and infertile soils of Breckland and much of the parish was set to heath and common whilst only a little over 50% of the acreage could be used as arable farming, a few pastures by the nearby River Wissey and warrenries completed the land use. Today much of the parish, in particular that south of the A134 is set to forestry with conifer plantations covering much of the land.

St Mary's church sits just east of the main area of properties and is accessed by a roughly surfaced track which runs eastward from the A134, small signs indicate the way off the busy road. The presence of a round tower is usually indicative of an ancient church and in this case Pevsner confirms the Anglo-Saxon 11th century tower albeit with a 15th century topmost stage. The southern doorway is also early with a date given c1200. Much of the remainder of the church has been modified over the years but enough remains to indicate a significant rebuild of the main body around the turn of 13th century into 14th. Perpendicular windows also indicate that work took place in the later 14th century and, of course, the Victorians also made their usual changes. The surfaced track trends gently away from the A134 before ending at a small parking area, from here a path leads across a meadow to the church. There are a few trees around the western end limiting the views of that tower but otherwise a straightforward building for the photographer.