The parish of Geldeston lies in southeastern Norfolk forming a stretch of the border, here formed by the course of the River Waveney, with neighbouring Suffolk. Geldeston lies located roughly 2 miles north west of the Suffolk market town of Beccles and sits about a mile south of the A143 road which parallels the county border from Great Yarmouth to Diss. Geldeston is a rather linear village with most properties lying on the edges of the grazing marshes that line the river's northern banks, just sufficiently above the river level to stay dry yet able to exploit both the marshes for their grazing, reed thatch & wildfowling but also to crop the drier land above the river's flood levels. In Addition to the usual Norfolk farming economy a substantial malting and brewing enterprise employed many of the parish folk, as can clearly be demonstrated by the employees listed in this transcript. Today Geldeston is perhaps better known for its iconic waterside inn the Locks Inn which lies on the banks of the Waveney and is usually accessed by pleasure boat or by a winding rough track across the grazing marshes.

St Michael's church sits on the "Old Yarnouth Road" the former course of the A143 before it was widened and realigned to follow the old branch railway line's route a bit further north. The presence of a round tower hereabout is usually indicative of an early church and Pevsner confirms that to be the case assigning a 12th century date to the western tower, even if the top stage had been rebuilt in Victorian times. The Victorian time is expressed almost throughout the church with major rebuilding of both the chancel and northern transept in the 1860s. Pevsner is uncertain of the nave's date, it may be as early as the tower but clearly shows work in both the 15th century Perpendicular and also signs of the Victorians too. The Old Yarmouth Road is narrow and with no obvious parking spaces close by this is a church to walk to. The churchyard, however, is cramped and much is obscured by the abundance of foliage which surrounds the church and removes most angles from the photographer's portfolio.