The name Whissonsett is thought to derive from Witcingkeseta as it has been known as in the past and means either the settlement of the Witcing tribe or a place of watery meadows.

In the Domesday survey fractions[5] were used to indicate that the entry, in this case the fishery, was on an estate that lay within more than one parish.

Saint Mary's parish church was built mainly during the Early English period (cica 1250) and is constructed from flint with freestone dressing.

One of the features of Saint Mary's are the large image niches, one in the nave and two in the chancel, either side of the east window.

The one in the nave contains the large head of an Anglo-Saxon cross, unearthed in the graveyard by grave diggers in 1902.