The steeple remained close to the foreshore, often surrounded by sand dunes, for some 350 years, although coast erosion continued to affect the area throughout that time. In 1605 the villagers applied for a reduction of taxes in a document entitled 'the ruynated state of the town of Eccles' explaining that some 2,000 acres of land and 66 households had been lost to the sea by that time. By the early 19th century the sea advanced, chewing ever more land away and the sand dunes were pushed back around the church. When Robert Ladbrooke engraved the tower for his series of illustrations of the churches of Norfolk in 1823, the tower was still, just, on the landward side of the dunes. By 1893, the church was not only on the beach, the chancel ruins had been destroyed... The fact that the tower stood until 1895 and formed such a local landmark made it an attraction for early photographers and so we have a number of early plates, most notably the fine image taken by a Mr Fitt, a Norwich photographer c.1890, and which was reproduced and sold in some numbers by him after the tower fell. ... it has been possible to show that the parish church was originally a two-celled building which had a round west tower... and a south aisle subsequently added. The tower is difficult to date, but from its size, proportions and coursed flint walling, appears to be Norman in date, probably of the 12th century." In January 1913, a large storm reportedly exposed much of the church and the village of Eccles. In the 1960s it is said that the location of the church was obvious from two large piles of flint, but they are covered by sand today. For a 15-year period from the mid-1980s the site of Eccles, by then designated as the Eccles Deserted Medieval Village was exposed by beach scours, most notably in 1991 and 1993. An archaeological watching brief undertaken at the time identified the church ruins, evidence of burials, ancient trackways and foundations of former dwellings in the vicinity of the church, including some dozen abandoned water wells. Excavation of these wells produced a wide range of metal, leather, timber and pottery all dateable to the late 16th century, indicating that the village had been abandoned at that time. Norfolk County Council Archive has a few Victorian prints of the tower still standing, although publication is not permitted. Examples can be seen on Norfolk County Council website. A beach service is held on the last Sunday in August every year on the beach near North Gap, Eccles to remember the old church and the people who are buried there.