Bramdean means "the valley where brooms grow". There was a roman villa near the village, excavated in 1824. The name goes back to 923. It is close to Hinton Ampner. There is a Church in the Woods which was built in 1883 for gypsies who used to camp in the local woods. It is built of corrugated iron and took five days to build.
It was here in 1993 that the Dongas road protest group moved after being driven of Twyford Down by bulldozers.