The parish of Hassingham lies in eastern Norfolk about 4 miles southwest of the large village of Acle and lying in the valley of the River Yare. Hassingham is a very small place indeed with no distinct village as such, merely a scatter of farms and cottages. The parish consists of two quite different landscapes, the pastures alongside the Yare are full of sheep and cattle (and in wintertime flocks of wild geese) whilst the higher portions of the parish are typical Norfolk arable land. Hassingham would undoubtedly have made economic use of those two landscapes in the past and marsh men and wildfowlers were common along this stretch of the river.

St Mary's church sits almost on the break of slope where these two areas meet. The church is very early for a Norfolk church, the round tower is usually testament to an early if not Saxon church although Pevsner dates St Mary's version to the 12th century for the basal portion with the octagonal top being added in the 15th century. Also Norman in origin is the southern doorway whilst the nave he dates to the following century. The chancel is of the Perpendicular era, that being the great church building era for Norfolk it would be unusual not to find some features of that date. Sadly the 20th century brought change to this remote place of worship, a fire necessitated replacing the damaged roof with the present structure in 1971, sadly most of the original furnishings were also destroyed and the current set date from 1971 too.