Welcome to this ancient and atmospheric church. People have worshipped on this spot for at least 900 years and, like most medieval churches, the building possesses craftsmanship from various dates and periods.

  
 Standing on a slight rise above the village, St Mary's church dates back to Norman times. It has a round tower with octagonal top, a thatched nave, a magnificent chancel, and contains fine examples of 14th century wall-paintings, and a medieval pulpit and screen. In the graveyard is the massive tomb of Robert Hales, the Norfolk Giant, a Victorian celebrity who was seven feet six inches tall. The nave and porch was re-thatched in 2009, leaving the church looking truly splendid. The restoration of the medieval wall-paintings is the Parochial Church Council's next project.

The church is open daily. We warmly welcome visitors to our church and services.
 

A great feature of St Mary’s is its lovely elevated setting and it is worth enjoying the views from the churchyard, including that towards Winterton church's magnificent tower. Even better views may be seen if one walks along the by-road westwards away from the church to the top of Church Road. From the top of the ridge we look across the marshes where Broadland joins the sea, with Horsey windmill straight ahead and in the far distance (about 9 miles away ) Happisburgh lighthouse and church.  We also see the dunes along the coastline and several church towers. Within four miles of this church are Ormesby, Rollesby and Filby Broads to the south, Martham and Hickling Broads, also Horsey Mere to the North-west, and 1 mile to the east is the open sea. 

West Somerton is a small village of fertile farmland and low lying grazing marshland, situated ten miles to the north
of Great Yarmouth, between the coast and the Norfolk Broads. The Staithe, in the heart of the village, gives access to the River Thurne and is a popular mooring spot for holiday makers.

A people’s art for a people’s faith - Of around 10 thousand medieval churches, fewer than 10% retain significant remains of their original wall-paintings. For every extant wall-painting, innumerable others have been destroyed.

 Wall-paintings were a unique art, complementing, and yet distinctly separate from other religious imagery in churches.  They added a visual sheen to a church, defining and honouring it as the House of God.

 They confirmed the Christian faith of those who saw them and bound communities together in life and after death.  As celebrations of Christian lives and ritual, the paintings provided inspiration for faith and personal devotion.

 For centuries, generations of Christian worshippers drew hope from the visions of courage and redemption that glowed from the walls of their churches and which transported them from the drudgery of daily survival into the company of angels & knights, popes & saints and the Divine made real..  For such audiences, these paintings were not just art, they were indivisible from the art of life itself.

 Wall-paintings defined people and places as Christians.  They made churches special & symbolic.  In a world often without colour, wall-paintings made entering a church unlike any other experience.. Their meaning could be social as well as specific.

 In a physical sense they belonged to every parish.  They were part of its inherited tradition, its history, the kinship of men and women who worshipped beside them, before them and beneath them.  They embraced generations of audiences, enveloping them in security, love, sacrifice, repentance & renewal. 

 They gave pride & definition, identity & memory, to a parish and its patrons.

 The PCC sees the restoration projects carried out since 1989 as necessary and essential precursors to the   conservation of St Mary’s wall-paintings and ensuring that their heritage is preserved and educational potential fully realised.    

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