[3] According to Eilert Ekwall, Professor of English at Lund University, the meaning of the village name Bradfield is 'the wide open land (or field)', early spellings being Bradefeld, Bradfelda, and Bradefelda.

Combust is derived from combusta, a Latin feminine adjective meaning 'burnt'; or in Middle English brent.

The most eminent member was Arthur Young (1741–1820), an agriculturalist and great socio-political writer and campaigner for the rights of agricultural workers.

[12] This Arthur Young entertained or corresponded with such notable people as William Wilberforce, George Washington, Edmund Burke, François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, and Joseph Priestley.

The present flint and brick Hall was built in 1857 on the exact site of its predecessor, by his son Arthur John Young.

It lies adjacent to a square moated area, possibly modified to make it more impressive when the 1857 Hall was built beside it,[13] but of antiquity.

The current village sits astride the on the A134, originally a Roman Road just here, and the same highway that Will Kempe (one of the co-founders of the Globe Theatre) took in Shakespearian times on his famous dance from London to Norwich.

The parish contained various historic estates including: Media related to Bradfield Combust at Wikimedia Commons