Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Racumba 1230 Lib

• in bosco de Rokcumbe 1244 Ass

• Rocumb(e) Hy3 Cerne 14

• bosco de Rocumb(e) 1258 For 1314 Pat 1315 1321 Cl

• Rocombe 1314 Fine 1315 Orig 1325 Pat

• Rocombe apud Blakemore 1335 Ct

• Rowcombe 16 Shepherd2

Etymology

Rocombe (lost), Racumba 1230 Lib, in bosco de Rokcumbe 1244Ass , Rocumb (e )Hy 3 (14) Cerne, bosco de Rocumb (e )1258For , 1314 Pat, 1315 Orig, Pat, 1321 Cl, Rocombe 1314 Fine, 1315 Orig, 1325 Pat, Rocombe apud Blakemore 1335Ct , Rowcombe 16Shepherd 2, 'roe-buck valley', from rā and cumb . The valley (and wood here) lay within Blackmoor Forest (3 274–5), and the valley is the starting and finishing point in early perambulations of the forest. Several early references mention land here held by 'the prior, chaplains and hermits of Blakemore ', v. par. name supra . Indeed Hutch3 4 466 may well be correct in supposing that this was the original name of the valley in which the hermitage was founded.The following entry in 1315 Pat (p. 336) is particularly informative: 'Grant to the prior and friars hermits of Blakemore of 8 acres of land… out of the waste in the king's forest of Blakemore …in a place called Rocumbe …License also for them to enclose the same at their will with a little dyke and low hedge according to the assize of the forest, and to reduce it to cultivation.'