Combe is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the English county of

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

. The parish is situated on the top of the North Hampshire Downs near

Walbury Hill Walbury Hill is a summit of the North Wessex Downs in Berkshire, England. With an elevation of , it is the highest natural point in South East England. On the hill's summit is the Iron Age hill fort of Walbury Camp, whilst the flanks of the hill ...

and Combe Gibbet, overlooking the village of

Inkpen Inkpen is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire, southeast of Hungerford, most of the land of which is cultivated fields with scattered woodland once part of a former forest of Savernake. Inkpen has boundaries with Wiltshire and Hamp ...

and the valley of the

River Kennet The Kennet is a tributary of the River Thames in Southern England. Most of the river is straddled by the North Wessex Downs AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). The lower reaches have been made navigable as the Kennet Navigation, which � ...

. In Walbury Hill, it includes the highest natural point in

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England that are in the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, top level category for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the nine counties of england, ...

. Administratively, the civil parish lies within the unitary authority area of

West Berkshire West Berkshire is a unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Berkshire, England. It is administered from Newbury by West Berkshire Council. History The district of Newbury was formed on 1 April 1974, as a merger of the borough of Newbur ...

, and within the ceremonial county of Berkshire. Historically part of

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, Combe was transferred to Berkshire in 1895.

History

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

people in this part of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

constructed communal

long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repres ...

s to bury their important dead and one is a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

in the civil parish beneath Gibbet Hill's peak. Both male and female bodies of the dead may have been left in the open to be reduced to skeletons by carrion before being collected and buried. In many cases the corpses were carefully assembled with the head to the south, men facing east, women facing west. It is unknown whether this was the case in the so-called

long barrow (named after the village to the north but within Combe), though it is on an east–west alignment.

St Swithun's Church

The

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ...

of Saint Swithun is Norman, with the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

dating from the second half of the 12th century. The interior has additions from the 17th century, such as the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

roof. The bell tower is made of wood on flint, and the bell chamber above holds three bells; one pre-reformation, one dated 1616 and one dated 1831. The church is a

Grade I In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

listed building.

Geography

Combe Hill forms part of the same

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. Due to the similarity, the term '' scarp'' may mistakenly be incorrectly used inte ...

as the larger

which is mostly in Combe, in the

North Wessex Downs The North Wessex Downs are an area of chalk downland landscapes located in the English counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. The North Wessex Downs has been designated as a National Landscape (formerly known as Area of ...

, the highest point in southeast England. Combe has a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

(SSSI) just to the south west of the village, called Combe Wood and Linkenholt Hanging. The civil parish includes the summits of Walbury Hill and Combe Hill, and parts of

Inkpen Hill Inkpen Hill is a summit in Berkshire, England, with a maximum elevation of . The hill is about southwest of Newbury on the Hampshire/Berkshire border and is part of the north-facing scarp of the North Hampshire Downs, a chalk ridge within the ...

and Pilot Hill. Combe Gibbet stands on Gallows Down, in the civil parish between Inkpen and Walbury Hills.

References

External links

Civil parishes in Berkshire History of Hampshire Villages in Berkshire West Berkshire District {{Berkshire-geo-stub