The ruins of St James' church Bawsey, Norfolk......

"There is believed to have been a settlement on this site since the Iron Age.  The church is thought to have originated as a Minster in the Late Saxon period and was built in the early and middle 12th century, with the chancel being replaced and enlarged in the 15th century......."

"It was the parish church for the now deserted village of Bawsey..... the church is thought to have been disused by 1517.... it is known to have been in ruins since before 1770.  A thousand years ago it was Norfolk's equivalent of St Michael's Mount.... for in Saxon times it would have been accessed by a causeway, standing on a piece of high ground surrounded by water on a headland on the estuary of the Gaywood River, and part of a fishing village at a time when King's Lynn would have been in the sea.  As the sea retreated the village fell into decline - reportedly helped by a landlord who demolished tenants' homes to make way for the more lucrative sheep.  By the 16th century the church was all that remained of the village."

Pixie - is our little culture vulture.....

.... and what St James looked like circa 1750...

Information from The Gayton, Grimston, Great Massingham and District Team Benefice.