[1] In the Domesday Book, Gayton is recorded as a settlement of 51 households in the hundred of Freebridge.

[3] Gayton falls within the constituency of North West Norfolk and is represented at Parliament by James Wild MP of the Conservative Party.

For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk.

Gayton's parish church dates largely from the Fourteenth Century and is dedicated to Saint Nicholas.

The village formally had a windmill and is currently seeing a large increase in the building of residential housing.