The name Bradfield simply failed to shift during the Great Vowel Shift from Old English to Broadfield, a name with a double emphasis on its broad stretch of open countryside. and the area around the village is predominately grazing land with dairy and sheep farming dominating. High Bradfield has a sister village, Low Bradfield which lies less than to the south west but at a considerably lower altitude down in the upper Loxley valley. The two villages are linked by the steep Woodfall Lane.