Prior to local government reorganisation in 1974, the former parish included the village of St Olaves to the north.

Previously the entire area south and east of the River Waveney was part of Suffolk.

[1][4] Prior to the loss of St Olaves, the population of the former parish was 262 at the 1961 United Kingdom census.

[1][2] There is no village centre, with the population spread across a number of scattered farms and small settlements.

It appears as ‘Herlingefleth’ in the Feet of Fines in 1202, as ‘Herlingflet’ in 1254 in the ‘Valuation of Norwich’, and as ‘Heringflete’ circa 1255 in the ‘Calendar of Charters and Rolls in the Bodleian Library’.

[17] The Great Yarmouth to Beccles railway line opened in 1859 and passed through the former parish, with a station at St Olaves.

[1][18] On the western edge of the former parish, Herringfleet Windmill, a timber smock drainpipe windpump, was built in about 1820.

[5][6][19] During World War II parts of the parish, including the area around Fritton Decoy, were used for training ahead of the Normandy landings in 1944.