The parish covers an area of 25.79 km2 (9.96 sq mi) (one of the larger ones in Norfolk) and had a population of 1,150 in 469 households at the 2001 census,[1] including Barwick (which is, however, a separate historical locality).

The "Docking Heritage Group" have been making limited archaeological investigations and collating evidence since 2012, and one conclusion is that the village's layout has changed little over the centuries.

[3] However, earthworks within the present deer park of Docking Hall indicate that the medieval village additionally extended due south of the church.

In the 1760s a single well was sunk some 230 feet down, which provided domestic water for the village at a farthing per bucket (the money went to pay an attendant who worked the windlass, since there was no pump).

Mesolithic (10 000 to 4 000 BCE) flints have been found north-east of Summerfield (TF754 391)[6] The "Norfolk Heritage Explorer" online database lists fourteen Neolithic flint axes found individually in Docking parish, indicating the major clearance of primeval woodland by the first farmers after 4 000 BCE.

A hoard of Bronze Age metalwork, including axes, was found in a field north-east of the village by a metal detectorist in 2013 (grid ref TF 771 387).

[7] An artificial hillock called "The Mount", in the grounds of Docking Hall, has been pointed out as a Bronze Age round barrow.

A very high-status 3rd century gold openwork ring set with garnet, green glass and pale sapphire was found in an unrecorded location in the Fifties, and sold at auction.

[14] The first documentary reference to the village is in the will of Aelfric bishop of North Elmham, who bequeathed it to Bury St Edmunds Abbey in 1038.

The existence of this presently (2019) relies on documentary evidence only, which describes an alien priory belonging to the abbey of Notre Dame d'Ivry at Ivry-la-Bataille in France.

To the north-west is the hamlet of Summerfield, which used to be the village of Southmere with its own parish church dedicated to St Andrew (grid ref: TF 7479 3850).

This had terraced formal gardens by the house, an avenue of trees focused on a temple (now gone) and "The Mount" a belvedere mound (thought by some to have been originally a round barrow).

[21] In the early 19th century, Docking was hosting a magistrates' court or Petty Sessions on the last Monday of the month at the Hare Inn, on the present Station Road.

The same establishment, founded in the 17th century but renovated and extended at this time, was also the post-house or centre of horse-drawn public transport for the village.

[23] The "Cage" or village lock-up, a tiny windowless prison, survives from the same period and is at the west end of Chequers Street.

[25] The Docking Poor Law Union, a federation of parishes for the purpose of dealing with paupers, had a workhouse built on a green-field site in 1836, west of the village on the Sedgeford road.

The United Automobile Services, a geographically sprawling bus company which began operations in Norfolk in 1912, established its route 31 in the Twenties.

During their RAF enlistment actors Richard Burton, Robert Hardy, Warren Mitchell and footballer Danny Blanchflower were based at Docking Hall.

[36] The presence of the airfield, as well as the village's proximity to the coast, meant that the latter was provided with substantial defensive works much of which survive.

Notably it has four Norcon pillboxes, three loopholed walls, one Blacker Bombard pedestal and two very rare Tett turrets with underground passages.

[37] Mechanisation of the parish's farmland, and conversion of pasture to arable, has meant the loss of many hedgerows and the grubbing out of some of the small 18th century woods since the Second World War.

His firm was the only Docking business which made an impact outside the village, as he established a chain of bakery shops with attached coffee houses in west Norfolk towns as well as selling wholesale.

No commercial bus company was prepared to take on the routes, so an emergency non-commercial arrangement had to be set up by Norfolk County Council.

[41] Docking Parish Council has a limited responsibility for some local amenities, such as the playing field and meeting hall.

Finally, the Wesleyan Reform Preaching House was located near the large pond to the west of the playing field, and was opened in 1851.

This line was opened by the West Norfolk Junction Railway in 1866, and passenger services were run as a shuttle from a bay platform at Heacham to Wells-next-the-Sea.

As a result, the village's station was closed to passengers in 1952 along with the rest of the line, as part of the first set of cutbacks of Britain's railways after nationalisation in 1948.

[54] In 2019, the village's bus service was the 21 running from King's Lynn via Flitcham and Great Bircham and terminating at the Railway Inn near the old station.

This service was part of the "Go to Town" outreach, a non-commercial venture by the West Norfolk Transport Project which is a registered charity.

[59] Bircham Newton airfield squash courts are allegedly haunted by the crew of a bomber which crashed here, and who were fond of playing the game.