St Michael Church, Ormesby

The church sits quietly at the edge of Ormesby, a village that's easy to miss if you're racing between Great Yarmouth and the Norfolk coast. St Michael's is a proper Norfolk parish church - flint and stone, the kind that's been standing here for centuries watching the flat landscape barely change. Inside, there's decent medieval work if you're into that sort of thing: carved roof beams, old fonts, the usual treasures that accumulate in churches that actually get used rather than turned into holiday cottages.

Historians and architecture types will spend a solid hour here. Families with young children might manage twenty minutes before someone asks why there's no gift shop. Walkers doing a loop from Great Yarmouth will find it worth the detour - the village itself has a calm that the seafront resorts don't, and the church is the real heart of it.

It's free to visit, as these places usually are, and you'll want to check ahead for opening times since smaller churches can be temperamental about access. The light through the windows is particularly good in late afternoon. If you're based at Parkdean Resorts California Cliffs or Richardson's Hemsby Beach just down the road, this makes a gentle morning outing before heading back for lunch. Waxham Sands is further out, but a proper walk to Ormesby church and back would give you a solid day on the Norfolk flats. Don't expect crowds or heritage centre facilities - this is church tourism in its plainest, most honest form.