The seven South Elmham villages; St James, All Saints, St Nicholas, St Cross, St Margaret, St Michael and St Peter, to which may be added Homersfield, sometimes referred to as South Elmham St Mary, lie in a scattered group between Bungay and Halesworth in NE Suffolk, to the W of the Roman road known as Stone Street. North Elmham (the centre of the see until 1071) is over 30 miles away, to the NW of Norwich, and both apparently took their name from Aethelmaer (bishop of East Anglia 1047-1070) the landholder before the Conquest. This is not certain; Tricker suggests that the name meant villages where elm trees grew. The land here is flat, generally arable and sparsely populated; the villages rarely more than a few houses clustered around the church without shops or pubs.
South Elmham St Michael consists of a few houses along the minor road running S from St Peter's to Home Farm, which marks the end of the village. The church is off this road to the E. It comprises nave, chancel and W tower, all of flint but mortar rendered on nave and chancel. Both nave and chancel have been raised, with courses of brick at the top of the walls. A mark on the W wall of the tower shows an earlier, steeper roofline. The nave has a 12thc. S doorway under a timber-framed porch, mortar rendered on the exterior. The N nave doorway is blocked and gives no indication of its date. The nave windows date from c.1300 and have two lights with Y-tracery. The chancel S and E windows are of the same c.1300 type (there are no N windows), and the priest's S doorway and piscina are contemporary. There is no chancel arch. The tower, of unrendered flint, has W window and bell-openings of c.1300, and the tower arch is tall and narrow. The only Romanesque sculpture is on the S doorway.