The parish of East Lexham lies in central Norfolk about 8 miles northeast of the market town of Swaffham. East Lexham is a small settlement lying in the valley of the River Nar and located just under a mile south of the B1145 road which cuts across mid-Norfolk from King's Lynn to Bawdeswell. Like most of Norfolk East Lexham was a farming community, but sitting in the valley of the Nar provided diversity with almost 20% of the parish's acreage pasture rather than the arable normally associated with the county. East Lexham is not sufficiently large to warrant the status of village, little more than a hamlet with clusters of farms and cottages either side of the Nar it remains a rural and peaceful location to this day.

St Andrew's church lays claims to be one of the oldest in the county and it certainly warrants that claim. The round tower is the main feature and Pevsner states that it "very probably" is Anglo-Saxon and potentially pre-Conquest. Whilst the main body is rendered, thus obscuring much dating detail, he also points out the long-and-short work of the quoins a characteristic of Saxon building whereby stones are alternately placed upright and horizontal. Work since the original construction is probably limited, the doorways date from around c1200 whilst a restoration took place in 1837 replacing the original roof. The church is located on the western edges of the estate of East Lexham Hall (a Queen Anne house replaced the original of 1630). A narrow lane runs alongside the Nar westward from Litcham and rough unsurfaced lanes lead off this to the church. The building sits within a broad open churchyard with no obstructions to photography.