[5] Its territory comprises slightly rolling countryside and is defined by two small valleys, the brooks of which form the boundaries of the southern part of the parish.

The A1122 Swaffham to Downham Market road passes through the north tier of the parish, but the village is only accessible via country lanes.

[11] Opposite the Buttlands Lane junction is the former Post Office, Grade II listed which is now a pair of semi-detached cottages beneath a single thatched roof and dated 1713.

It's part of a larger pile called Hyde House which incorporates an older thatched building, and is the headquarters of Albanwise Ltd the owner of the Barton Bendish Estate.

[14] Barton Bendish's War Memorial is located in the churchyard and is a Grade II listed Celtic cross in grey granite[15] that was restored in 1977.

[17] Opposite the pub is the well-used Village Hall, and further down on the left is the old St Andrew's Rectory with a gable wall in a flint, ashlar rubble and red brick mix.

[3] At the end of Church Road is a short private drive leading to Avenue House, a mid-18th century farmhouse which is Grade II listed.

[22] Whatever, its site was first definitely developed in the 17th century, but the original house was almost entirely torn down and rebuilt in 1856, and the present structure is architecturally Victorian.

The interior of the house was then extensively redone throughout the early and mid 20th century, meaning it retains little of its original artistic integrity, even from the Victorian period.

Nevertheless, the house remains one of the more notable structures in the village, and the gardens have been developed by the current owner, Count Luca Padulli di Vighignolo, and are periodically opened to the public.

The five of them comprise a single-storey brick edifice with a black glazed pantile roof and an interesting set of cages in wrought iron.

[24] Oddly, the present main built-up area just described used to comprise two Siamese-twin settlements which had their own churches and administration until the late 18th century.

The latter shortly makes a right-angled turn, but the original route ran straight ahead to the ancient common land of Barton Bendish Fen with its associated woodland.

[32] Burials of this period have been found, and three ring ditches interpreted as ploughed-out round barrows have been identified on aerial photographs.

[31] The A1122 to the east of Fincham follows the course of a Roman road that connected the Fen Causeway with Venta Icenorum (the present Caistor St Edmund).

[33] The outline of a Roman marching camp was identified on an aerial photograph, just north of The Channels wood and near one of the putative round barrows already mentioned.

[3] They completed the acquisition of the remaining manorial landholdings, to turn the parish into a single country estate centred on Barton Hall.

The ancient common land of Barton Bendish Fen was suppressed, and the poor of the parish were given the income from forty acres as compensation.

[16] In the Eighties of this century the noted philologist, botanist and clergyman Robert Forby was resident in the village, firstly as tutor to the Berney children at the Hall and then as head of a small private academy.

[45] In 1841 the botanist George Munford published his list of flowering plants in western Norfolk, giving witness to the botanical richness then of the lost chalk grasslands of the parish.

As well as the pub, school and post office, there was also a shop, a coal merchant who farmed, a bootmaker and a blacksmith who was also a wheelwright who could shrink-fit iron tyres to cartwheels.

[53] The only surviving remnant is a polygonal brick-clad concrete pillbox up a farm track west of Eastmoor Lane (first right from the village).

[16] The Berney family finally lost possession of the Estate just after the Second World War, and the subsequent owners oversaw the introduction of intensive farming.

[3] Also in 1967 the post office and village shop merged as businesses, but this did not prove profitable and the combined retail outlet shut down for good a decade later.

At the start of the century the Spread Eagle pub was sold as a free house, renamed the Berney Arms and became a high-standard gastropub with accommodation.

The village bowling green was officially opened in 1952, although before that the game was played in front of Avenue House courtesy of Commander Mansfield.

Phase 2 involved the lengthening of the nave westwards, or a transverse rectangular tower added (the evidence didn't allow a firm choice of hypotheses, but the former was preferred).

It was decided to demolish All Saints in 1788, to use some of its materials in the repair of St Mary's and sell the rest with the three bells to raise money for the restoration, which was overseen by Robert Forby the rector.

[3] During this process the 12th-century north doorway was salvaged in toto, moved from All Saints and set in the new west wall at St Mary's.

[72] In the Norwich Diocesan Registers of 1314 a chapel dedicated to St Mary the Virgin in Marisco (i.e. in the Marsh) was first mentioned, with the patronage being in the hands of the Lovell family.