Like its neighbouring community of Byng Inlet on the south shore, Britt was originally a sawmill village, known as Byng Inlet North when the Burton Mill located there in 1880. As the lumber industry in this area had reached its peak, prior to the building of the CPR between 1903 and 1908, the community on the north shore was established as a port for receiving coal, required for the railway's steam locomotives. It was after this, that Byng Inlet North was renamed Britt for Thomas Britt, the CPR Superintendent of Fuels.
The village is name-checked in Stompin’ Tom Connors’s song, “Around the Bay and Back Again,” from his 1969 album On Tragedy Trail with Stompin’ Tom Connors.