The parish of Brettenham lies on the southern border of Norfolk with neighbouring Suffolk. Brettenham lies about 4 miles east of the market town of Thetford on the narrow lane that winds from Thetford to East Harling alongside the River Thet. This was always a sparsely populated area of Breckland and nowadays it is little changed other than by the growth of the large forestry plantations in the area. The settlement of Brettenham is a mere hamlet, not a fully fledged village, with a handful of farms and cottages grouped around a road junction just north of the river. The brevity of the transcript is also testament to the low population in past times when the area would have been dominated by sheep and rabbit warrens.

The dedication for Brettenham's church is one of Pevsner's errors. He gives the church as St Mary but that referes to Brettenham in Suffolk, the Norfolk church is St Andrew. Whilst St Andrew's church looks imposing, in its position to the west of the lane heading for the River Thet crossing, most of the building is a Victorian rebuild. The original church was, by the mid 1850s, largely a ruin. The rebuild did, at least, incorporate some fragments of the original building notably a Norman southern doorway which would indicate the original was of considerable antiquity. St Andrew's stands in relative isolation south of the main settlement a low stone and brick wall separating it from the narrow lane, the church overlooks sheep pastures reminiscent of the past.