Coombs

Coombs on the horizon

extract from the 1831 census.

Coombs or Coombes was a cluster of cottages on the ridge above Loosley Hill Road, now disappeared.

Coombs in the mist on the horizon behind The Sprat

The Forgotten Hamlet of Coombs by Rita Probert.

Introduction

This map of the 1700's clearly depicts Comb Farm.

Section of map of 1811 indicating Smallden Wood and Common and the old Wycombe Road (now Little Lane and Lower Road)

Many people use the footpath via Gomme's Forge's ornamental iron stile at the junction of Little Lane, Foundry Lane and Lower Road in Loosley Row to cross the hillside know locally as The Grubbin. They exercise their dogs and stop to admire the beautiful views of Lodge Hill, Wain Hill and beyond to the Vale of Aylesbury.

After a heavy snowfall the area is particularly popular with children and adults alike for sledging down the hillside. The area once again resounding with voices that, in fact, echo the past.

New residents are perhaps unaware that at the top of the hill and to the left of the footpath, stile and beyond, now farmland, there once stood a small hamlet called Coombs. This consisted of a farm and three or four cottages housing over the years in its heyday an average of twenty men, women and children. By 1911, however, the number had drastically reduced to seven residents and signified the eventual decline of the hamlet.

This Coomb does not fit the dictionary description of a small valley with steep sides. It has been suggested however that the hamlet in Loosley Row derived its name from the home, presumably a farm, of one William ate Coumbe who in 1354 left a bequest of one sheep to the church at Bradenham. The Parish boundary of Bradenham sill passes through the area formerly occupied by Coombe.

The date that the farm and cottages were built remains unknown, although ongoing research may reveal the answer. It can only be estimated at the moment as during the 18th century or earlier. The area was certainly mentioned in a will made on 1st March 1704 by one Henry Hawes:

"To my son John ....all lands called Winters and Coombs in the occupation of William Stone with the aforementioned hedgerow at the bottom of the lower side of Coombs now in my occupation ...."

This map of the 1700's clearly depicts Coomb Farm.

A map of the late 1700's showsat least two buildings surrounded by areas of land recorded as Ginger's Coombs, Ginger's Little Coombs and Ginger's Great Coombs indicating an early landowner/occupier.

Currall was also a name which had long associations with the hamlet over the years.

In 1789 a marriage took place at St Mary's Church, Princes Risborough, between a William Currill and a Sarah Ginger of Coombs. suggesting perhaps that the land previously occupied by the Ginger family had eventually passed via marriage to the Currells.

In a survey of the Parish of Princes Risborough 1808-1810 names of owners/occupiers are not recorded, but the survey does describe properties at Coombs as two houses, gardens and closes and a garden in the woods.

The 1821 census although only recording the head of each household does at last give the first recorded names and number of occupants (a total in 1821 of 19) who lived in the hamlet in four properties. All he males being employed in agricultural work with the exception of one other trade in Thomas Randall's household. One unoccupied property was also recorded on the census.

Coombs
Construction Era	1700-1822, 1823 Enclosures Record
Type of Property	Cottage
Use of Property	Residential
Locations	Loosley Row, Coombes