Комб-Даун: Деревня у подножия холмов Бата

Village on the outskirts of Bath, United Kingdom

Combe Down is a village on the outskirts of Bath, England, in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary authority area, 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 and present council housing; a range of Georgian, Victorian and 20th century properties along both sides of North Road and Bradford Road; and the 21st century Mulberry Park development on the site of former Ministry of Defence offices.

Combe Down sits on a ridge above Bath, approximately to the south of the city centre. The village is adjoined to the north by large areas of natural woodland (Fairy Wood, Long Wood, Klondyke Copse and Rainbow Wood) with public footpaths offering views overlooking the city. Parts of these woods are owned and managed by Bath & Northeast Somerset Council, but the majority are owned and managed by the National Trust; the Bath Skyline trail runs north of the woods. To the south of the village are views of the 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’.

Combe Down has many local amenities including schools, churches, shops, local societies and pubs. It has two allotment sites: 64 plots on a privately owned site at Church Road, established in 1895, and 10 plots at Foxhill owned by the parish council. The local state primary school is Combe Down CEVC (Church of England Voluntary Controlled) Primary School, housed partly in a log cabin imported from Finland. The nearest state secondary school (with sixth form) is Ralph Allen School. The independent Monkton Combe School is in the nearby village of Monkton Combe while its prep school, pre prep and nursery are all in Combe Down village. Prior Park College, an independent Catholic secondary school, is adjacent to the village. The centre of the village has a range of shops and small businesses. The post office closed in 2006 despite public opposition and the nearest post office branch is now inside a grocery store in a row of shops on the Bradford Road. There is an Anglican church (Holy Trinity) and a non conformist chapel (Union Chapel). A Roman Catholic church (Saint Peter and Saint Paul) is on the edge of the village, adjacent to the Foxhill estate. The village pubs are the King William IV, the Hadley Arms and the Forester & Flower (formerly The Foresters). The King William has not reopened since the pandemic of 2020 and the Forester & Flower opens only for one evening a week, so as at December 2023 the Hadley Arms is the only fully operational village pub. Combe Down has two flourishing rugby union clubs and a cricket club, a children's nursery, a doctors' surgery and a dentist as well as an active Cub and Scout Group (10th Bath) with its own Scouts' Hut. There are several societies, including an active local history group (the Combe Down Heritage Society), a branch of the Women's Institute and two art groups. There is a private hospital, Bath Clinic (owned by Circle Health Group) on Claverton Down Road, based at Longwood House, the former home of the Mallet family of Mallet Antiques. Margaret Mary Mallett (1882–1959), who lived at Longwood House, and her daughters Margaret Elizabeth Mallett (1905–1991) and Barbara Penelope Mallett Lock (1896–1978) donated of land on Combe Down and Claverton Down including Rainbow Wood farm, Klondyke Copse, Fairy Wood and Bushey Norwood to the National Trust. Opposite the hospital is a 4 star hotel and health club, Combe Grove Manor, with of gardens and woodland. A public open space (Firs Field) incorporates the village war memorial and a play area with children's play equipment. Three parcels of land make up the Firs Field open space, two of which are under the control of the local Council. The deeds state that the Firs Field is intended for the recreation of the residents of Combe Down in perpetuity. Firs Field was restored to meadowland status following the successful completion of the stone mine stabilisation works in 2010. A residents' group (The Friends of Firs Field) exists to ensure the appropriate representation of local residents' interests with regard to the management of the field. In 2015 Firs Field was granted "commemorative" status and designated an official Fields in Trust "Centenary Field". In July 2014 the Ralph Allen CornerStone was opened. It is run by a charity, the Combe Down Stone Legacy Trust, as a sustainable building and educational centre. The Combe Down Heritage Society has museum standard secure archiving space in the basement where it catalogues and stores unique local heritage material, and which can be accessed by researchers. There are daily bus services to the village from Bath city centre. The privately owned Bath 'circular tour' bus passes the outskirts of the village and down Ralph Allen Drive on its route to the city centre. The Bath Circular bus (service number 20A) passes through Combe Down and caters for students travelling to the University of Bath and Bath Spa University.

Combe Down village sits above an area of redundant 18th and 19th century stone quarries, many of which were owned and developed by Ralph Allen in the 1720s. These quarries were fully infilled and stabilised during a central government funded project which took place between 2005 and 2010. Over 40 quarry sites have been identified on Combe Down. Only one working quarry (Upper Lawn Quarry) remains on the edge of the village, located off Shaft Road. This supplies high quality Bath stone to the city and across the UK. John Leland, the 16th century antiquarian and traveller, wrote in the 1500s that he approached Bath from Midford " And about a Mile farther I can to a Village and passd over a Ston Bridge where ranne a litle broke there & they caullid Midford Water 2 good Miles al by Mountayne and Quarre and litle wood in syte " which could be a reference to quarrying around Horsecombe Vale, between Midford and Combe Down. The mines at Combe Down were Oolitic (oolite) limestone mines. Stone was extracted by the "room and pillar" method, by which chambers were mined out, leaving pillars of stone to support the roof. The Bath stone used for many of the buildings in Bath – as well as for other important buildings around the United Kingdom including Buckingham Palace – was mined from beneath and around Combe Down. Many of these workings were once owned by the eighteenth century entrepreneur Ralph Allen (1694–1764). The mines were closed in the 19th century but building work continued above ground, with some roads and houses eventually resting on only a thin crust – in places between only one and two metres deep – above large underground cavities with inadequate support.

Combe Down Tunnel was opened in 1874 and emerges below the southern slopes of the village. It was once the UK's longest railway tunnel (1,829 yards) without intermediate ventilation. The tunnel now forms part of the £1.8 million Two Tunnels Greenway walking and cycling path which opened on 6 April 2013. At over a mile long, the Combe Down tunnel is the longest cycling tunnel in Britain and features an interactive light and sound installation as well as mobile phone coverage. Its custodian is Wessex Water.

The Jewish burial ground is a site of historic value on Bradford Road and is one of only fifteen in the country to survive from the Georgian period. While the burial ground suffered a period of neglect since it ceased to be used in the early 20th century, much remains intact to serve as an important reminder of Bath's historic Jewish community. It dates from 1812, and the last recorded burial was in 1942. The site contains a small building, once thought to be a prayer house (Ohel), but more recent research by the Friends of Bath Jewish Burial Ground. who manage the site, have shown that it was a cottage used by the caretakers of the burial ground, and not used for religious purposes. English Heritage gave the Burial Ground a Grade II listing in 2006. The site contains two chest tombs and some fifty gravestones, dating from between 1842 and 1921, with both Hebrew and English inscriptions. Funds to restore the cottage, conserve the grave stones, repair the boundary wall, replace the gates and develop interpretation of the site have been obtained from a number of charitable sources and a series of restoration works have been undertaken in the period 2015 2022. The site is opened for public visiting several times a year and private access can be arranged by appointment through the Friends. A print dating from the 1850s shows the mill which then possessed the largest water wheel in England, measuring 56 feet (17 m) in diameter. It has subsequently been discovered that most of the coloured papers used by J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851) for a good number of his approximately twenty thousand drawings and watercolours were made at De Montalt Mill. The premises were then sold to wholesale stationer William Jennings Allen (1807 – 1839). In the 20th century cows and pigs were being reared on the site. Various parts of the mill have Grade II listed building status, including the southern range which consisted of the apprentice shops and stores, the main east block which was the printing works where notes were printed for the Bank of England – later converted to cabinet manufacturing and the chimney. De Montalt, an Italianate villa set in the grounds is also grade II listed. The mill and its associated buildings were converted to residential use during 2007, with the main mill building being converted into four apartments. Elements of the conversion featured in the Channel 4 television programme Grand Designs.

A local woodland wild flower is the Bath Asparagus, also known as the Spiked Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum pyrenaicum). The flowers appear in June after the leaves die; the leaves resemble bluebell leaves but are a softer green and not as glossy. The flowering spike is up to one metre high. At the unopened stage the flowers used to be gathered in small quantities as a fresh vegetable by local people; it was also occasionally sold in local markets, but picking the flowers today is not encouraged as wild asparagus is becoming rare. According to research carried out by Avon Wildlife Trust the plant is found throughout Europe but has only a limited UK distribution. It is possible that the flower was first brought to the Bath area as seeds carried on the wheels and hooves of Roman vehicles and animals. Allium ursinum, also known as Ramsons or wild garlic, is abundant in the National Trust woodlands adjacent to Combe Down during the spring.2015.