The village name is Anglo Saxon and means 'broad enclosure', referring to the fact that the village sits in a broad valley among the surrounding Chiltern Hills. In the Domesday Book of 1086, the village was recorded as Bradeham.
Bradenham is the location of a grand manor, which in the Thirteenth century was a property belonging to the Earl of Warwick. The house was fit for royalty, as in 1566 Queen Elizabeth I was entertained here.
In the Victorian period, the house was turned into a boarding school for local young gentlemen. Today it is a youth hostel.