The parish of Garvestone lies in central Norfolk about 5 miles south of the market town of East Dereham. Garvestone is a long straggly village with most properties sitting either side of the B1135 road which connects East Dereham with Wymondham. The area is (and was) an intensively arable agricultural one and Garvestone would have been dominated by the growing of cereals, beet and more recently oil seed. The area experienced some growth during Victorian times as the Mid-Norfolk railway passed through the parish but this has been downgraded to a freight & heritage line only. Garvestone sits on a slight ridge above two shallow valleys which collectively form the headwaters of the River Yare, one of Norfolk's main rivers flowing through the city of Norwich to the North Sea at Great Yarmouth. The landscape is rather flat, it is some miles heading westwards before one reaches a map contour line.

St Margaret's church sits at the eastern end of the village on the southern side of the B1135. The church is an example of a building begun during the Decorated era and completed in the following Perpendicular style. From the earlier era comes the chancel arch, often the oldest part of any church, the southern doorway and the southern arcade. The tower has bell openings which are of mixed styles whilst the remainder of the church is wholly Perpendicular and thus rather typical of a Norfolk church. Pevsner places the style change to a period around the middle of the 14th century and it is likely that the church was commenced in the early 14th and formed a single build through into the 15th. For once Pevsner doesn't mention an extensive Victorian restoration so perhaps whatever changes were minor or subtle. The church sits in a slightly elevated and rather open site, banks face the pavement rising a few feet as the only protection. A scatter of trees dot the churchyard but do not unduly interfere with photographic angles.