Breckles of the Future

If current trends continue, it would seem that for all its great past, Breckles is destined to become yet another lost village of Norfolk. Mechanisation and the increasing amount of land under the plough during the 20th century has meant a severe loss of jobs in the area and families and young people have moved away to find work. The village population has shrunk and houses or farms have become more widely divorced from their neighbours.

There also appears to be a worrying trend in regional government to quietly drop Breckles as a place name and amalgamate the village with Stow Bedon. In the County Council’s 1991 Census the list of parishes forming Breckland shows a number of linked parishes but Breckles is mentioned at all, not even as Stow Bedon with Breckles.

Both County and District Councils also just refer to Stow Bedon Parish No 95, dropping the name Breckles and there is no roadside sign announcing the village of Breckles when coming along the A1075 from the north. It is hoped, however, that this website will help to put Breckles back on the map.