It is situated on the boundary between the geographical areas of the Breckland – a region of sandy heathland now largely forested – and the flat, low-lying Fens, with some characteristics of both.

Sir John's brother, William Tyndale (Tyndall) (1484–1536), a 16th-century scholar and linguist died a martyr for translating the scriptures from Greek and Hebrew into vernacular English so that commoners could read the Bible for themselves, rather than having to depend on the church hierarchy to interpret the official Latin Vulgate.

Tyndale was tied to a stake, strangled with a rope and torched outside a castle near Brussels on October 6, 1536.

His brother, William Heveningham, was one of the regicides of Charles I, and his daughter Abigail married John Digby, 1st Earl of Bristol.

Prince Victor Duleep Singh, the eldest son of the last Maharaja of Lahore, a godson of Queen Victoria, came to live at Hockwold Hall in 1895.