St Mary’s is a largish church overlooking what was the estuary of the River Glaven and the ports of Wiveton and Cley. The west tower and chancel are of early fourteenth-century date. In 1437, John Hakon left 200 marks for rebuilding the church, and the nave and south porch were constructed and new side windows inserted in the chancel on the pattern of the nave and the tower west window. Pevsner and Wilson see the style of the new work as being of the 1440s.

On 10 May 2002, a remarkable discovery was made when work was being done on a bricked-up window in the chancel (nII): in situ medieval glass and lead was found in the tracery behind the brick infilling. The glass has since been removed, conserved and replaced in isothermal units and the whole of the window opened up again. In June 2002, the glass was displayed at an exhibition in the Vatican, ‘Anglicanism and the Western Tradition: Continuity and Change’. ¹ At the top of nII was found a winged figure of St Luke with his lion. ² It may be presumed that the remaining Evangelists and their symbols were in the three other side chancel windows. To the right of the pair of tracery lights below was part of a censer, suggesting that the two central lights may originally have had a Coronation of the Virgin, consistent with the church’s dedication.