Brome is a village and former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Mid Suffolk Mid Suffolk is a local government district in Suffolk, England. The district is primarily a rural area, containing just three towns, being Stowmarket, Needham Market and Eye. Its council was based in Needham Market until 2017 when it moved to sha ...

district, in the north of the

English county The counties of England are a type of subdivision of England. Counties have been used as administrative areas in England since Anglo-Saxon times. There are three definitions of county in England: the 48 ceremonial counties used for the purpo ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

. It lies on the A140

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

road around northwest of

Eye An eye is a sensory organ that allows an organism to perceive visual information. It detects light and converts it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons (neurones). It is part of an organism's visual system. In higher organisms, the ey ...

and southeast of Diss near the border with

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

. In 1961 the parish had a population of 230. The village is now in the parish of Brome and Oakley and has been combined with the village of Oakley for centuriesSt Nicholas, Oakley
Suffolk Churches website. Retrieved 2014-03-15. but the civil parish was only combined on 1 April 1982. The village church, dedicated to St Mary, is one of 38 existing

round-tower church Round-tower churches are a type of church found mainly in England, mostly in East Anglia; of about 185 surviving examples in the country, 124 are in Norfolk, 38 in Suffolk, six in Essex, three in Sussex and two each in Cambridgeshire and Berks ...

es in Suffolk.St Mary, Brome
Suffolk churches website. Retrieved 2014-03-15. It is a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

with a medieval core dating from the 12th century.Church of St Mary, Brome and Oakley
British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 2014-03-15. A moated site near the church is a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

dating from the same period.

Sport

Mini Challenge UK The Mini Challenge UK is a one-make race series began in 2002 and since 2020 the JCW and JCW Sport championships have run as a support package to the British Touring Car Championship. The series umbrella includes multiple classes: * JCW Class ...

and

BTCC The British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), officially known as the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by ...

team

Excelr8 Motorsport EXCELR8 Motorsport is a British racing team that is headed by Justina Williams, and is currently competing in both the MINI CHALLENGE and British Touring Car Championship, the latter under the Team VERTU name. The team has successfully compete ...

have a base in Brome. They have won the Mini Challenge three times and

Tom Ingram Tom Ingram (born 20 August 1993) is a British racing driver, currently racing in the British Touring Car Championship for Excelr8 Motorsport, Team VERTU. Having won the Ginetta Junior Championship in 2010 and the Ginetta G50, G50 class of the ...

won the 2022 BTCC Drivers' Championship driving for the team.

Notable residents

The Catholic priest and martyr Henry Morse was born in the village in 1595. Morse was venerated and beatified in December 1929 and in 1970 was made one of the

Forty Martyrs of England and Wales The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales or Cuthbert Mayne and Thirty-Nine Companion Martyrs are a group of Catholic Church, Catholic, lay and religious, men and women, executed between 1535 and 1679 for treason and related offences under variou ...

.Holmes P, ‘Morse, Henry (1595–1645)’, ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

'',

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2004; online edn, September 201
accessed 2014-03-15
Pullan M (2008) ''The Lives and Times of Forty Martyrs of England and Wales 1535 - 1680'', Athena Press, pp. xvii–xxii. .

John Wilbye John Wilbye (baptized 7 March 1574September 1638) was an English madrigal composer. Early life and education The son of a tanner, he was born at Brome, Suffolk, England. (Brome is near Diss, Norfolk.) Career Wilbye received the patronage of th ...

(1574-1638), the famous English madrigalist, was born in Brome. Amongst his works is the much performed

madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th centuries) and early Baroque (1580–1650) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the ...

: "Adew Sweet Amaryllis".

References

Villages in Suffolk Former civil parishes in Suffolk Mid Suffolk District {{Suffolk-geo-stub