Coombe, Surrey
| Coombe | |
| Surrey | |
|---|---|
 Coombe Warren Lodge, Coombe Lane | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ208703 |
| Location: | 51°25’8"N, 0°15’51"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 20,108 (2011) |
| Post town: | Kingston Upon Thames / New Malden |
| Postcode: | KT2, KT3 |
| Dialling code: | 020 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Kingston |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Kingston and Surbiton |
Coombe is a village by Kingston upon Thames in Surrey. It sits on high ground, east of Norbiton, and by is Richmond Park. To the east are public playing fields and Wimbledon Common.
History
Coombe centres on what was originally Coombe House,[1] a large residence built in the 1750s.[2] The house, now demolished, was located at the southwest corner of the junction of Coombe Lane (A238) and Traps Lane.[3] Its red brick boundary walls can still be seen on the west side of Traps Lane.[4]
The area has a long history. Roman coins and other ancient remains have been found in the area around Warren Road.[5][6] Coombe appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Cumbe. It was held partly by Hunfrid (Humfrey) the Chamberlain and partly by Ansgot the Interpreter. Its domesday assets were: 1½ hides; 4 ploughs, 12.0 acres (4.9 ha) of meadow, herbage worth 4 hogs. It rendered £8.[7]
The Neville name has long been associated with the area. In 1215 King John gave Coombe to Hugh de Nevill, and the area was known as Coombe Nevill by 1260. At the beginning of the 14th century the manor was held by William de Nevill.[2][8] The 1911 Ordnance Survey map identified an estate known as Coombe Nevile at the junction of George and Warren Roads.[6] The present-day cul-de-sac known as Coombe Neville is at the same location. Neville Avenue is a short distance away, south of Coombe Lane.
16th-century records speak of a gallows in Coombe, most likely near what is now Kingsnympton Park estate,[5] reputedly the scene of public executions.
In the early 1700s a public house known as the Fox and Coney was established at the junction of George Road and Kingston Hill (A308). It was rebuilt in 1728 and soon thereafter was renamed the George and Dragon, operating as such until 1985, when it became the Kingston Lodge Hotel.[9][10]
By 1761 Coombe was owned by John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer.[11]
Coombe Warren was a wild woodland on the ridge known as Coombe Hill. It was used for hunting and public fairs. 'The Coombe Wood Highwayman', Jerry Abershaw, frequented the area in the late 1700s. Being based at the "Bald Face Stag" pub, he sheltered in the woods. An 1835 map placed Coombe Warren in an area now bisected by Warren Road between Kingston Hill (A308) and Coombe Lane (A238).[12] Portions of the Warren are now covered by the Coombe Hill estate and Coombe Wood Golf Course.
In 1822 the Admiralty opened a semaphore station in the Warren, which was part of the semaphore line from London to Portsmouth. The station has disappeared, but survived in the name of "Telegraph Cottage."[13]
At the time of the 1865 Ordnance Survey, the area west of Warren Road remained largely open country. By 1911 two golf courses were in place, as were a number of large houses located along George Road, including Coombe Croft (briefly home to John Galsworthy's family, now Rokeby School for Boys), Coombe Ridge (now Holy Cross Preparatory School), Coombe Court, Coombe End, Ballard Coombe and Fairview.
Numerous German bombs struck Coombe during Second World War.
About the village
Coombe is a prestigious residential location, with a premium on house prices. Much of the area is occupied by two golf courses, Coombe Wood and Coombe Hill; and three private estates partly on private roads, though in practice access is mostly open, apart from Coombe Park.[14] These are called Coombe Hill, Coombe Warren and Coombe Park. Once the site of now-demolished Coombe Warren, a 19th-century property built by architect George Devey, Coombe Hill estate today consists of Coombe Hill Road and cul-de-sacs such as Greenwood Park and Devey Close; and along Warren Road, George Road and Golf Club Drive.
Three Tudor-era structures built as a system for supplying water to Hampton Court Palace from springs in Coombe: Coombe Conduit on Coombe Lane West, Ivy Conduit on the grounds of Holy Cross Preparatory School on George Road, Gallows Conduit on the grounds of Hampton Spring house on George Road.
Warren House on Warren Road, constructed in the 1860s for banker Hugh Hammersley and extended in 1884–1886 by the architect George Devey;[15]
Pictures
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Coombe, Surrey) |
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House, Coombe Hill Road -
Coombe Wood Golf Club -
Warren Road looking north from Coombe Neville -
Coombe Wood Road -
Rokeby School, formerly Coombe Croft, George Road, Coombe -
The White House. Formerly owned by Kenelm Lee Guinness
References
- ↑ "List of Conservation Areas: Coombe House". Kingston Council. https://www.kingston.gov.uk/info/200216/conservation_and_heritage/747/list_of_conservation_areas/23.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "A History of the County of Surrey, volume 3". Victoria County History, London, 1911. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/surrey/vol3/pp501-516.
- ↑ "1816 Ordnance Survey map". Maldens & Coombe Heritage Society. http://maldensandcoombeheritagesociety.weebly.com/ordnance-survey-1816.html.
- ↑ "Garden and Boundary Walls to Cimero, Thatchers and Wansbeck, Kingston upon Thames". http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-203192-garden-and-boundary-walls-to-cimero-that/photos.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Hawkins, Duncan. "Roman Kingston-upon-Thames: a landscape of rural settlements". http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-457-1/dissemination/pdf/vol08/vol08_02/08_02_046_050.pdf.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Old Ordnance Survey Maps: Coombe & Norbiton, 1911 (1913 ed.). Alan Godfrey Maps, Leadgate, Consett DH8 7PW.
- ↑ Surrey Domesday Book Template:Webarchive
- ↑ "The Coombe Estate". Malden & Coombe Residents Association Ltd.. http://mcraltd.com/history.pdf.
- ↑ Kingston Museum and Kingston History Society, "The George and Dragon Public House, Kingston Hill (1728–1985)", 23 April 2016
- ↑ 1865 Ordnance Survey map.
- ↑ Oliver, Richard. Narrative to Old Ordnance Survey Map 1911.
- ↑ Gent, L.E.. "The Manor of Coombe or Coombe Nevill (1979)". Kingston upon Thames Archaeological Society. http://maldensandcoombeheritagesociety.weebly.com/the-manor-of-coombe-or-coombe-nevill.html.
- ↑ "The old semaphore lines". https://www.commsmuseum.co.uk/dykes/smallsnips/semaphorelines/semaphorelines.pdf.
- ↑ "The Coombe Estate", Kingston-on-Thames Council
- ↑ "Warren House, Kingston upon Thames". http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-479388-warren-house-greater-london-authority.
- "History": "The Coombe Estate", Residents Association