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Brettenham
Brettenham
	St. Mary's Church, Brettenham
	Brettenham Location within Norfolk
Area	33.82 km2 (13.06 sq mi)
Population	507 (2021)
• Density	15/km2 (39/sq mi)
OS grid reference	TL935836
Civil parish	Brettenham;
District	Breckland;
Shire county	Norfolk;
Region	East;
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	THETFORD
Postcode district	IP24
Dialling code	01842
Police	Norfolk
Fire	Norfolk
Ambulance	East of England
UK Parliament	South West Norfolk;
	List of places UK England Norfolk 52°24′56″N 0°50′42″E / 52.41555°N 0.845°E

Brettenham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.

Brettenham is located 4.1 miles (6.6 km) east of Thetford and 24 miles (39 km) south-west of Norwich.

History

Brettenham's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for Bretta's village or farmstead.^[1]

In the Domesday Book, Brettenham is recorded as a settlement of 40 households in the hundred of Shropham. In 1086, the village was part of the estates of Roger Bigod, St. Etheldreda's Abbey in Ely, Eudo Dapifer and John, Nephew of Walderan.^[2]

Listed buildings within Brettenham include 1, 2 and 3 Kilverstone Road which were cottages built for workers on Shadwell Estate in the 1870s^[3] and The Manor House (Seventeenth Century)^[4] and an accompanying barn (Nineteenth Century).^[5]

Parts of Snarehill Airfield spill into Brettenham Parish. This was a training base used by the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War which later transitioned to use as a decoy site in the Second World War. In 2010, some concrete structures associated with the base still remain.^[6]

Geography

According to the 2021 census, Brettenham has a population of 507 people which shows a slight decrease from the 555 people recorded in the 2011 census.^[7]

The course of the River Thet runs through the parish.

St. Andrew's Church

St. Andrew's Church is Norman in origin and suffered extensive damage in a fire in 1693 that also destroyed the parsonage.^[8] The church was significantly remodelled in the 1850s by Samuel Sanders Teulon at great expense and with stained-glass installed by A. L. Moore.^[9]

In the tower hang five bells, the earliest complete ring by John Taylor & Co in the country. They were cast in 1852 as a gift by Isabella Buxton who 'contributed a peal of five finely toned bells, cast by Messrs Taylors of Loughborough,' according to the Norfolk Chronicle as part of renovations to the tower. The bell frame and fittings have been damaged due to a leak in the tower roof so ringing ceased in 1930. Minor repairs were made in 1991, however one of the foundation beams was determined to be weaker than originally thought, thus ringing was stopped.^[10]

Governance

Brettenham is part of the electoral ward of Forest for local elections and is part of the district of Breckland.

The village's national constituency is South West Norfolk which has been represented by Labour's Terry Jermy since 2024.

War Memorial

Brettenham's war memorial is a brass plaque located in the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Rushford. It lists the following names for the First World War:^[11]


Rank	Name	Unit	Date of Death	Other Commemoration / Burial
AS	Francis J. Hazlewood	7th (Hood) Battalion, Royal Naval Division	31 Dec. 1917	Rocquigny-Equancourt Road British Cemetery
Pte.	William Rudland	6th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment	7 Aug. 1916	Thiepval Memorial
Pte.	Wallace R. Newby	Canadian Army Service Corps att. 1st Division	1 Feb. 1919	Terlincthun Cemetery, Wimille