Combrook (also spelt Combroke and - more rarely - Combrooke) is a small village of about 65 houses in rural
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...
, located near the junction of the
Fosse Way (B4455 road), and the
B4086 road between the villages of
Wellesbourne
Wellesbourne is a large village in the civil parish of Wellesbourne and Walton, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of the UK. In the 2021 census the parish, which also includes the hamlet of Walton, had a population o ...
and
Kineton
Kineton is a village and civil parish on the River Dene in south-east Warwickshire, England. The village is part of Stratford-on-Avon district, and in the 2001 census it had a population of 2,278, increasing to 2,337 at the 2011 Census.
Kin ...
. The population taken at the
2011 census was 159.
History
Its history is closely linked with that of the nearby
Compton Verney
Compton Verney is a parish and historic manor in the county of Warwickshire, England. The population taken at the 2011 census was 119. The surviving manor house is the Georgian mansion Compton Verney House.
Descent of the manor
The first ...
estate, for which it once served as the estate village, providing living accommodation for a number of the servants.
The village dates from at least the time of
Henry I Henry I may refer to:
876–1366
* Henry I the Fowler, King of Germany (876–936)
* Henry I, Duke of Bavaria (died 955)
* Henry I of Austria, Margrave of Austria (died 1018)
* Henry I of France (1008–1060)
* Henry I the Long, Margrave of the ...
, circa 1086, when a small medieval church was built in the village. There is, however, no separate reference to it in the
Domesday book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
. By 1279, following a stocktaking by
Edward I known as the
Hundred Rolls The Hundred Rolls are a census of England and parts of what is now Wales taken in the late thirteenth century. Often considered an attempt to produce a second Domesday Book, they are named after the hundreds by which most returns were recorded.
Th ...
, Combrook was identified as located in the
Kineton hundred. It remained part of the Kineton parish until 1858, when it was separated from Kineton and united with the ecclesiastical parish of
Compton Verney
Compton Verney is a parish and historic manor in the county of Warwickshire, England. The population taken at the 2011 census was 119. The surviving manor house is the Georgian mansion Compton Verney House.
Descent of the manor
The first ...
.
A number of the buildings in the village have a similar style, most easily seen in the church. The original church was modified in
Tudor times, with the chancel being rebuilt again in 1831. The present building was erected in 1866, to a design by John Gibson, paid for by the Dowager Lady Margaret Willoughby de Brook of
Compton Verney
Compton Verney is a parish and historic manor in the county of Warwickshire, England. The population taken at the 2011 census was 119. The surviving manor house is the Georgian mansion Compton Verney House.
Descent of the manor
The first ...
, keeping the existing chancel. John Gibson went on to design the Victorian neo-Elizabethan estate houses and the horse drinking troughs in the village in the same style as that of the church. A number of the other houses in the village are thatched, with clear signs of original thatched roofs visible on several other dwellings. Until the sale of the Compton Verney estate in 1929, Combrook was a "closed" village, entirely owned by the
Lord of the Manor
Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...
, who could determine who lived there, and Combrook today is still considered to be one of the best-preserved estate villages in the country.
The largest house in Combrook once served as the school, and there has been a school on the site since at least 1641. The building which now serves as the village hall was built as the village school in 1855, and seems to have served as a design template for John Gibson's style for the church and estate houses. The village school was closed in 1966.
Etymology
The name "Combrook" derive from the words "cum" meaning valley, and "broc(e)" meaning brook, and simply refers to its location in a valley beside a brook. The name is variously presented as "Combroke" (on the road signs at entry to the village, and for official purposes by
Stratford-on-Avon District Council), or "Combrook" (as used by Warwickshire County Highways Department and the Royal Mail), or even "Combrooke", as used by
Severn Trent Water
Severn Trent plc is a water company based in Coventry, England. It supplies 4.6 million households and business across the Midlands and Wales.
It is traded on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Severn Trent, the ...
. Historical variations have included Cumbroc and Combroce (13th century rolls), Cumbrok (Dugdale 1656), Combebrooke (1658 church flagon) and Cumbroke (1817 map).
References
External links
{{authority control
Villages in Warwickshire