About Breckles

Welcome to Norfolk Heritage Explorations – Breckles

Breckles is situated some five miles south east of Watton. It comprises some 1560 acres, just over one square mile (Whites 1845). In 1845 it had one hundred and sixty inhabitants whereas today it is home to sixty people in just twenty eight homes. These homes range from bungalows and cottages to a grand Elizabethan manor house. The size of Breckles has decreased so much that the village is now administered under the integrated Parish Council of Stow Bedon with Breckles: each community retains its own separate community status but has a single Parish Council to mutual benefit of each community. For such a small village, little known in its own locality and easily missed by today’s fast moving traffic along the A1075, Breckles has a tremendous history.

For most of its history Breckles was part of a large estate and it was not until the final break up of the estate in 1911 that the independent community of today’s Breckles began to emerge. The land and property from the estate is now in private hands and the land is largely given over to agriculture, mainly cereal and beet crops. There is a turkey farm, a pig farm, a dairy farm and two stud farms. One stud farm is for Welsh Cobs and one is for Arabs. Commercially, there is a small touring caravan park and adequate parking at the church for those wishing to use the public footpaths that criss-cross the area.