St Mary's church tower climbs in diminishing square stages, each smaller than the one below, above the Waveney marshes. The brick steps were probably added around 1800 to a much older building whose nave and chancel run under a single thatched roof. Sarah Spooner has likened the effect above the flat marsh to the "deserts of Mesopotamia."
The church stands on a promontory about two miles from where many visitors stay, which is the Waveney River Centre down by the river. Here there is a marina, an indoor swimming pool, a provisions shop and the Waveney Inn, a riverside pub, restaurant and hotel with a large south-facing deck. The deck looks out over marina water, reed-fringed river and open marsh, and on a still evening the view is what you notice.
The inn cooks to order. Diners have recently had fish and chips, ribeye, steak pie, salmon-and-prawn linguine, skate wing and a full English in the mornings — worth checking the current menu before you go. One visitor called it "Fab view, great food."
From the centre a passenger ferry crosses the Waveney to the Suffolk bank and Carlton Marshes. The crossing was reinstated in 2012 after roughly fifty years without one, reconnecting the Norfolk paths to Suffolk's. It can be seasonal and does not always run, so check before planning a walk that depends on it.
Carlton Marshes is a 405-hectare mosaic of grazing marsh, fen, peat pools, dykes and reedbed, and entry is free. There are bird hides, an outdoor play area, baby-changing, and a visitor centre with a café doing fresh lunches and a shop selling books, binoculars and wildlife gifts. Possible sightings include marsh harrier, hobby, water vole and dragonflies; dogs are allowed on a short lead.
From the ferry landing the Angles Way runs on toward Oulton Broad, about forty-five minutes to an hour on foot, or roughly three hours to Beccles. A moderate circuit through the reserve and Oulton Broad takes about two and a half hours. On the Norfolk side, quiet lanes and footpaths link the village to Aldeby, Toft Monks, Wheatacre and Haddiscoe.
The church interior repays the walk out to it: a 15th-century roof carved with bosses, a 14th-century octagonal font with shields and roses, a piscina and triple sedilia, and fragments of medieval glass. Opening hours are not fixed, so entry is not guaranteed. The tower carries a family story. Samuel Boycott, first of five Boycott rectors who between them served the parish for 135 years, built it after the earlier tower fell, and tradition credits his son William's travels for its stepped shape. Charles Cunningham Boycott, born here in 1832, went on to manage Lord Erne's land in County Mayo, where his treatment during an 1880 rent dispute put a new verb into English. He lies by the east window.
The village keeps no secure Domesday entry of its own; its lands were probably counted under Wheatacre, whose 1086 survey lists 49 households, 62 acres of meadow, pasture for 200 sheep and two churches. The name may mean a hill or mound, for ground that stands above the water.
Getting here is a rural business. The 86 bus runs on weekdays between Beccles, the village, Wheatacre, Loddon and Norwich, though only a journey or two touches the village each day, and Somerleyton, the nearest station, is unstaffed and about 3 km from the village centre. Two minutes up the road from the Mill Road stop, the White Lion at Wheatacre pours local ales and award-winning ciders and runs a monthly theme night.
On a still evening, the marina lights come on over the water, the last boats tie up for the night, and the tower stands dark on its promontory above the marsh.