The village is within the Broads Special Protection Area and lies on the north bank of the River Yare.

[1] In the Domesday Book, Cantley is recorded as a settlement of 58 households located in the hundred of Blofield.

Today, the station lies on the Wherry Line with regular to Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft and Norwich.

ASMij had been founded in 1908 to concentrate the Dutch beet sugar industry and remove surplus capacity.

The village's national constituency is Broadland and Fakenham which has been represented by the Conservative Party's Jerome Mayhew MP since 2019.

Cantley's war memorial is split across two marble plaques located inside St. Margaret's Church.