The parish of Toft Monks lies in the extreme southeast of Norfolk close to the border with neighbouring Suffolk. Toft Monks is a small village lying immediately west of the A143 road which runs along the Norfolk?Suffolk border from Diss to Great Yarmouth. This area of Norfolk consists of a broad peninsula of land enclosed by a large meander in the course of the River Waveney which forms the border, Toft Monks sits at the landward (western) end of that peninsula where it butts onto the rest of the county. The area is not hilly country, a mere 30 metre rise from the river, but it is noticeably a raised area surrounded by grazing marshland and would have supported arable agriculture.

St Margaret's church sits in splendid isolation about a half mile northwest of the main village and stands on the southern side of a T junction of lanes. St Margaret is unusual in having a totally octagonal tower from base to battlement although Pevsner speculates that a Norman round tower lies within and was later enclosed by the octagonal facings in the 13th century. He cites many other Norman features through the building to support this early origin theory. The chancel appears to share a common date of 13th century with the octagon but the nave is standard Perpendicular and typical of Norfolk. The building stands behind a flint & brick wall in almost a treeless site giving fine views under big Norfolk skies.