Deer grazing in Richmond Park near Coombe, South West London.
Throughout history, people have aspired to live on the high ground, for reasons of defence and security or for fresh air and views, and Coombe, the area between Coombe Lane and Kingston Hill, is one such place. People first lived here in the Bronze Age, from 1,000BC if not earlier, and there is a small hoard of pots and metalwork from Coombe Hill in Kingston Museum.
At that time, Coombe could indeed have been a centre of bronze metal working as a supplement to farming. There is no evidence for settlement in the Iron Age and Roman periods, although Roman coins were discovered in pots along with Roman walls in the 16th century. It is even possible that the Romans had a temple at Coombe associated with the many springs there. When the Anglo-Saxons invaded, it seems that part of Coombe remained a Romano-British area for a while, going by the name of Waleport.
Coombe means ‘valley’ and originally referred to the area south of Coombe Hill. Coombe is first mentioned by name in the Domesday Book of 1086 when the land was held by Humphrey the Chamberlain on behalf of the Queen (Matilda, who had died in 1083). At this time the whole of Coombe was valued at £5.
In 1215 King John granted the lands to Hugh de Nevil and the estate then became known as the Manor of Coombe Nevil, later Nevill. This estate was farmed under various owners with no great changes until the 16th century.
By 1515, the estate was owned by Merton Priory. This date marks the start of the building of Hampton Court Palace by Cardinal Wolsey and the building continued after 1525 when he gave the palace to King Henry VIII. This affected Coombe because a set of three conduit houses was built to collect water from the springs of Coombe in order to supply fresh water piped all the way to Kingston, under the Thames and then through to Hampton Court through a series of lead pipes. These conduit houses still exist and are some of the earliest surviving buildings in the borough. Coombe Conduit, the largest, is on Coombe Lane West and is open to the public once a month in summer. Ivy conduit (badly damaged by a V1 flying bomb in 1944) is in the grounds of Holy Cross Prep School, and Gallows Conduit is in the grounds of Wolsey Spring (a private house) in George Road. This is named after the gallows which used to be somewhere in the vicinity. Its most famous victim was the Catholic martyr, Blessed William Way, in 1588. The Hampton Court water supply lasted until shortly after 1895 when the three conduit houses were sold to the then owner of the manor, the Duke of Cambridge for £75.
The Manor of Coombe was seized from Merton Abbey at the Reformation and in 1579 Elizabeth granted it to Thomas Vincent, who built a manor house near the top of Traps Lane. Queen Elizabeth herself visited in 1602. The manor changed hands several times until it was purchased by John (later Earl) Spencer in 1753. The manor house was rebuilt and named Coombe Wood House. The Prime Minister Lord Liverpool lived here from 1802 to 1828, and King George III visited in 1805. The house gradually fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1933.
The top, flat part of Coombe Hill was known as Coombe Warren, after which Warren Road was named. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, crowds gathered here for executions at the gallows and also for cock fighting and bare knuckle fights. In 1821 Earl Spencer sold the Admiralty a small piece of land here so that they could build a semaphore station, one of a string of a dozen stations linking the Admiralty in London to Portsmouth. By means of sign boards and telescopes, messages could be passed to the fleet and back in a matter of minutes. It survived until the invention of the electric telegraph made it redundant, but it is remembered today in the name of the nearby ‘Telegraph Cottage’.
In 1837 the manor of Coombe was sold by the third Earl Spencer to the first Duke of Cambridge, Adolphus Frederick, who greatly expanded the estate by buying up more land in Kingston and Norbiton. He also tried to block off Warren Road in 1850 by putting guards on the gate who would only let ‘respectable’ people through! Shortly afterwards the estate passed to his son, George, Second Duke of Cambridge. Local people wanted to retain their long held right of access across the Warren and the case was finally resolved at a trial in Croydon in 1853. The jury decided that pedestrians did have a right of access but that the Duke was entitled to ban carriages.
This restricted access still applies to Coombe Warren today. Although pedestrians are allowed free access, cars and other vehicles need a permit to use Warren and George Roads. The population boom in Kingston in the 19th century put up the value of land for building houses and the Duke gradually sold off parcels of land for building. One of the first to buy was John Galsworthy, father of the famous author, who built three large houses which his family lived in briefly before each was sold. One was demolished in the 1930s but two survive as Holy Cross Prep School and Rokeby Boys School. The fact that both are now schools shows you how big they were! John Galsworthy Junior, the author, was inspired by the view from Coombe Hill which he called Robin Hill in his Forsyte Saga novel.
Since then, many famous people - whether they be aristocracy, politicians or bankers - have found a retreat on Coombe Hill. The founder of Barings Bank lived here, as well as William Campbell, governor of the Bank of England from 1907 to 1909. General Eisenhower lived at Telegraph Cottage during the planning for D Day in 1942 and again in 1944. He was able to slip out occasionally for a quick round of golf onto Coombe Wood Golf Course. Today, Coombe is a peaceful oasis of calm in a busy Greater London.
Written by Tim Everson
Local Historian