English Place-name Society

Survey of English Place-Names

A county-by-county guide to the linguistic origins of England’s place-names – a project of the English Place-Name Society, founded 1923.

Combe Abbey

Major Settlement in the Parish of Combe Fields

Historical Forms

  • Cumba 1156 P 1316 FA
  • Cumbes c.1270 Gerv
  • Coumbe 1330 FA 1369 ADiii
  • Comb Abby 1721 Recov
  • Kymba earlyHy2 Dane

Etymology

“Calling it the Abbey of Cumbe , in respect of its low and hollow situation: the word cwmm in the British signifying vallie , or convallis , as doth also Cumbe and Combe in the Saxon: consonant whereunto, the Vulgar in Yorksh , and those Northern parts, term a large vessel of wood (such as they use to steep Barley for Malt in) a Cumbe to this day” (Dugdale 145).Dugdale's speculation is interesting, for though it is certain that the dialectal cumbe does not derive from the topographical term, it has been suggested, with some grounds of probability, that OE  cumb is really English rather than Welsh , and that it is identical with the dialectal cumbe . For Fields v. supra 25.

Places in the same Parish