Combe, Berkshire

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Combe
Combe, Berkshire (Berkshire)
Combe, Berkshire

Combe shown within Berkshire
Population 42 (2001)
OS grid reference SU370608
Unitary authority West Berkshire
Ceremonial county Berkshire
Region South East
Constituent country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Postcode district RG17
Dialling code 01488
Police Thames Valley
Fire Royal Berkshire
Ambulance South Central
European Parliament South East England
UK Parliament Newbury
List of places: UKEnglandBerkshire

Coordinates: 51°20′44″N 1°28′10″W / 51.3455, -1.4694

Combe is a village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. It is situated in the district of West Berkshire, on the top of the downs near Walbury Hill and Combe Gibbet, overlooking the village of Inkpen and the valley of the River Kennet. Before 1895, Combe was in Hampshire.

Bronze Age people used communal 'long barrows' to bury their dead and one still exists directly beneath the Gibbet at Combe. 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 'Inkpen' long barrow (named after the village to the north), though it is on an east-west alignment.


Settlements in West Berkshire
Towns: Hungerford | Newbury | Thatcham
Civil parishes: Aldermaston | Aldworth | Ashampstead | Basildon | Beech Hill | Beedon | Beenham | Boxford | Bradfield | Brightwalton | Brimpton | Bucklebury | Burghfield | Catmore | Chaddleworth | Chieveley | Cold Ash | Combe | Compton | East Garston | East Ilsley | Enborne | Englefield | Farnborough | Fawley | Frilsham | Great Shefford | Greenham | Hampstead Norreys | Hamstead Marshall | Hermitage | Holybrook | Inkpen | Kintbury | Lambourn | Leckhampstead | Midgham | Padworth | Pangbourne | Peasemore | Purley-On-Thames | Shaw-cum-Donnington | Speen | Stanford Dingley | Stratfield Mortimer | Streatley | Sulhamstead | Theale | Tidmarsh with Sulham | Tilehurst | Ufton Nervet | Wasing | Welford | West Woodhay | West Ilsley | Winterbourne | Woolhampton | Yattendon
Other villages and suburbs: | Aldermaston Wharf | Ashmore Green | Bagnor | Burnt Hill | Calcot | Donnington | Eastbury | Halfway | Hell Corner | Lambourn Woodlands | Little Heath | Lower Basildon | Marsh Benham | Shaw | South Fawley | Stockcross | Upper Basildon | Upper Lambourn | Upper Woolhampton | Wash Common | Weston | Woodlands St Mary | World's End