The name of Brea is an old Cornish word meaning hill, spelt Bray in the 1600s and 1700s. Geologically, made up of granite, killas and elvan.
There is some evidence of mediaeval life. It was part of Tehidy Manor, owned by the Bassett family from mediaeval times.

 There are signs of a mediaeval house, a manor house at Entrall. On the 1695 map of Robert Morden, Brea was not shown, so one would imagine that from the time of the Crane family arriving, very few other people did. On Joel Gascoyne's map, it shows, as "Brea Audit" and within a decade a networks of adits appeared. In the latter half of the 18th  century, an increasing population attracted to the area by the demand for labour in the ever-increasing copper mines, sought suitable dwelling sites, which affected the development of the village. They applied to the manor court for permission to build cottages.

"Lord de Dunstanville, like his father Francis before him, acted upon the principle that the surest way to secure the wealth of the landlord was to promote the prosperity of the tenantry. He granted three acres of land, terminated on three lives to everyone who would erect a cottage and break in the land, with the understanding that when the first three acres were cultivated, three more would be added. Whilst giving some security to these miners smallholders tenants, the Lord reaped the benefits. He not only collected the rents, but eventually acquired the land."
(John Nordens map 1597)

There is a dense if superficially invisible small net of kin linkages spread around the village with a resultant solidarity of what happens to one is felt by the whole group. Things are changing, a sense of belonging together has shifted, and the fear for the history of this particular community is at an end, although another community and another history has started. Different people, different occupations.
The Railway Line which runs through Brea Croft and Brea Mine was built in the 1830s as the Redruth to Hayle Line.