Descriptive gazetteer entries

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Brettenham like this:

BRETTENHAM, a parish in Cosford district, Suffolk; on the river Bret or Breton, 3½ miles NNW of Bildestone, and 7 SW by W of Stowmarket r. station. Post Town, Bildestone, under Ipswich. Acres, 1,558. Real property, £3,001. Pop., 426. Houses, 88. The property is divided among a few. 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. Val...

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ue, £377.* Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church is good.

This is the only descriptive gazetter entry we have found, but you may be able to find further references to Brettenham by doing a full-text search here.

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Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Brettenham within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller	Section	No. of Refs.
William Camden	Essex and Suffolk	2

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place	Mentioned in Travel Writing	Mentioned in Hist. Gazetteer
Thorpe Morieux	0	2
Hitcham	0	2
Felsham	1	2
Kettlebaston	0	2
Preston	0	2
Rattlesden	0	2
Gedding	0	2
Buxhall	0	2
Wattisham	0	2
Cockfield	0	2
Bildeston	0	2
Little Finborough	0	2
Chelsworth	0	2
Great Finborough	0	3
Bradfield St Clare	0	2
Brent Eleigh	2	2
Lavenham	3	2
Monks Eleigh	0	2
Cosford	0	2
Nedging	0	2