St Edmund's Catholic Church

The brick tower of St Edmund's rises from Bungay's quiet streets with a kind of solid certainty. This is a working Catholic church, not a museum piece, and there's something reassuring about that - the worn flagstones, the smell of candle wax, the sense that people actually pray here rather than just photograph it.

What you're looking at is Victorian-era architecture done properly. The church went up in the 1830s when Catholic practice was still finding its feet in Norfolk, and it's got that earnest, well-built quality of the period. Inside, there's decent stained glass and some genuinely thoughtful ornamentation - nothing flashy, which is rather the point. History enthusiasts and church architects will find plenty to examine; families with restless children will manage twenty minutes comfortably.

It's free to visit and open to anyone during daylight hours, though it's worth checking if there's a service on if you want the full experience. Bungay itself is a proper market town with pubs and independent shops, so you can easily combine a church visit with lunch without it feeling forced.

For a Norfolk holiday, this works as a half-hour stop rather than a destination in itself. Wardley Hill Campsite sits just 2.7 miles out - perfect base for exploring the town and surrounding countryside. If you're staying at Dawn Chorus's safari tents a couple of miles further on, you could amble into Bungay, have a look round, grab a coffee. It's the kind of place that rewards wandering rather than planning.