Place:Brettenham, Norfolk, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Brettenham is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. It covers an area of 26.37 km2 (10.18 sq mi) and had a population of 475 in 159 households at the 2001 UK census. In 2011 the census included smaller villages with less than 100 population along with their larger neighbours. In Brettenham's case, Rushford was included in the 2011 UK census, increasing to the population of Brettenham to 555. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the District of Breckland.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Brettenham from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1871-72:

"BRETTENHAM, a parish in Thetford [registration] district, Norfolk; on the Roman Peddar-way and the Little Ouse river, 1½ mile S of the Norfolk railway, and 3½ E of Thetford. Post Town: Thetford. Acres: 1,981. Real property: £884. Population: 72. Houses: 11. The property is all in one estate, belonging to Sir W. B. Proctor, Bart. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Norwich. Value: £200. Patron: the Bishop of Ely. The ancient church was burnt in 1693; and is now an ivy-covered ruin. The present church is a small quadrangular structure, with square tower."

Brettenham parish absorbed the parishes of Rushford and Great and Little Snarehill in 1935, expanding its acreage from 2,006 to 6,514.

Research Tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for Brettenham. Some entries lead to free online transcriptions of registers and censuses.
• GENUKI also supplies a map illustrating the individual parishes of Shropham Hundred. Parishes labelled with letters should be identifiable from the Ordnance Survey Map of 1900.
• GENUKI also advises that the following lists for Norfolk are to be found in FamilySearch:

• England, Norfolk, Parish Registers (County Record Office), 1510-1997
• England, Norfolk Archdeacon's Transcripts, 1600-1812
• England, Norfolk Bishop's Transcripts, 1685-1941
• England, Norfolk Marriage Bonds, 1557-1915
• England, Norfolk Non-conformist Records, 1613-1901

• Ancestry.co.uk has the following lists as of 2018 (UK or worldwide Ancestry membership or library access required). With the exception of the index to wills these files are browsible images of the original documents. The files are separated by type and broken down into time periods (i.e., "Baptism, Marriages, and Burials, 1535-1812" is more than one file). The general explanatory notes are worth reading for those unfamiliar with English parish records.

• Index to wills proved in the Consistory Court of Norwich : and now preserved in the District Probate Registry at Norwich
• Norfolk, England, Bishop's Transcripts, 1579-1935
• Norfolk, England, Church of England Baptism, Marriages, and Burials, 1535-1812
• Norfolk, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1915
• Norfolk, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1990
• Norfolk, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1940

• FindMyPast is another pay site with large collection of parish records. As of October 2018 they had 20 types of Norfolk records available to browse including Land Tax Records and Electoral Registers.