Brettenham, Suffolk

Historical Description

Brettenham, a parish in Suffolk, on the river Bret or Breton, 3½ miles NNW of Bildeston, and 5 NE from Lavenham station on the G.E.R. It has a post office under Bildeston (S.O.), which is the telegraph office; money order office, Felsham. Acreage, 1438; population of the civil parish, 336; of the ecclesiastical (St Mary), 354. Brettenham Hall belonged formerly to the Wenyeves, and passed to the Beales. Some vestiges in the parish are supposed to mark the site of the Roman station of Combretonium. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Ely; net value, £320 with residence. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church is an ancient building of flint and stone in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Brettenham from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Brettenham (St. Mary))

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Suffolk is available to browse.

Maps

Online maps of Brettenham are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Suffolk papers online:

• The Ipswich Journal
• East Suffolk Mercury and Lowestoft Weekly News
• Bury and Norwich Post
• Bury Free Press