Combe Down | |
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Holy Trinity Church |
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Combe Down shown within Somerset | |
Population | 5,419 (2011) |
OS grid reference | ST761625 |
Unitary authority | |
Ceremonial county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | BATH |
Postcode district | BA2 |
Dialling code | 01225 |
Police | Avon and Somerset |
Fire | Avon |
Ambulance | South Western |
EU Parliament | South West England |
UK Parliament | |
Combe Down is a village suburb of Bath, England in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Somerset.
Combe Down village consists predominantly of 18th and 19th century Bath stone-built villas, terraces and workers' cottages; the post World War II Foxhill estate of former council houses; and a range of Georgian, Victorian and 20th century properties along both sides of North Road and Bradford Road.
Combe Down sits on a ridge above Bath approximately 1.5 miles to the south of the city centre. Combe Down village is adjoined to the north by large areas of natural woodland (Fairy Wood, Long Wood, Klondyke Copse, Rainbow Wood) with public footpaths offering magnificent views overlooking the City of Bath. Parts of these woods are owned and managed by Bath & Northeast Somerset Council, but the majority are owned and managed and by the National Trust and incorporate the Bath Skyline Walk. To the south of the village are spectacular views overlooking Midford Valley.
"Combe" or "coombe" is a word meaning a steep-sided valley derived from Old English "cumb" and possibly from the same Brythonic source as the Welsh cwm. "Down" comes from the Old English "dūn" or "dūne", shortened from adūne ‘downward’, from the phrase of dūne ‘off the hill’.
Formerly part of the Parish of Monkton Combe, Combe Down village was incorporated into the city of Bath in the 1950s.