The Dark Secrets of Coombes Valley

As a residential intern here, I became interested to learn as much as I could about Coombes Valley. Has it always been a beautiful nature reserve? Why is it spelled “Combes” with one “o” on the map? Researching the Valley’s history for a guided walk that I led on 3 February, 2013, I discovered some local folklore...

Hell Hole

Coombes Valley has not always been regarded as a beautiful place. It was once known as Hell Hole! That’s right, Hell Hole, as in: a God forsaken place. This tale comes from the collection of local folklore in the book “The Tale of Ipstones”. The book describes The Combes Valley as “That deep and mysterious hollow, with its Spirit Hole, Hell Hole, Buttermilk stream and Horsley’s Stone.” I’d seen “Spiritholes Woods” marked on the map when I first came to stay here and that got me wondering. It seems that the Hell Hole was the name given to this Valley, and not the name of one particular feature within it.

The story goes that a fierce struggle had taken place here when the Saxons first came into England. (That’s 449AD in southeast England.) After a bloody battle in those days, a place often got blasted with a bad name and no one wanted to go there or live there. It was an area of waste. I think that it probably made the valley an ideal hideout for bandits/outcasts etc. According to “The Tale of Ipstones” this solitude lasted 500 years. “The lonely horror of the waste was broken...” it states. When someone realised that indeed there were people living in the valley, they had to find out if they were paying their taxes! There is a record of a trial taking place in 1293 to see whether or not this tract should pay taxes. The inhabitants on the land here were found to answer to the Manor of Alveton (Alton). The tale goes on to say that Apesford seems to have stood at the edge of the waste. Apesford is a tiny little place, just a couple of farms, up the lane from the visitor centre at Coombes Valley. The name “Apesford” used to be “Harp’s Ford” and it was thought that the name comes from a harpist that was drawn by the beauty of the landscape here and sat by the brook (Coombes Brook) to play his or her harp.

Horsley’s Stone

Coombes Valley harbours another dark secret and has its own ghost! The legend tells of two brothers named Horsley. One source says that they lived at Crowholt, a house not far from Coombes Valley, just down Apesford Lane. As boys, the Horsley brothers’ mother died and so they were brought up by their young housekeeper. The boys grew into young men and both fell in love with the housekeeper. They competed for her affection and the rivallry between them grew. It escalated so much that one brother murdered the other. To hide his crime, the murderer took his brother’s body into this Valley and threw it into the brook. Above him was a huge, rocking stone which he heaved and pushed until it fell on top of the murdered body. This is now known as Horsley’s Stone.

The story goes that Horsley’s ghost appears as a bird, which was in accordance with the request of the unhappy ghost. Local people claimed to have seen the bird and heard its sad song at the close of day. According to the book ‘The Tale of Ipstones’, a young man from Ipstones used to come frequently poaching fish from this brook. In order to find his way he used a lantern and a candle. He never feared the gamekeeper but had a dread of Horsley’s Ghost. One gloomy evening the young man was on his way home with his unlawful catch. It was very dark in the woods so he stopped to open the door of the lantern for greater light. Just then Horsley’s ghost appeared in the form of a bird. It flew into his lantern and extinguished his candle then disappeared into the trees where the young man heard its mournful song. He was so terrified that he never came back to poach fish from the brook ever again.

There are some other legends about Horsley’s Stone:

• Some say it was used on which to execute captives of war.

• An old legend tells of twelve clergymen that came to lay the ghost of Horsley. One of them was supposed to have held the stone on its end until the service was complete. He then let it fall on the poor ghost. This is highly unlikely as the stone is guessed to weigh about 10-15 tons. All except one of the clergymen ran away terrified.

• Some years ago, a local landowner in the area employed some stone masons to cut up Horsley’s Stone for building purposes. But from either finding it too hard or from superstitious fear the stone was left to rest in its place in the brook with just one piece cut from the top.

Unfortunately Horsley’s Stone is not accessible at present so you won’t be able to visit it for yourself. I haven’t even seen it! It’s down there somewhere in the brook, deep in the woods.

Coombes

That just leaves me to tell you why on the Ordnance Survey map you will see Coombes Brook marked as “Combes Brook”, spelled with one “o” but still pronounced “Coombes”. Our double letters, “oo”, in our name is thought to have been a misprint by the RSPB back in the 1960s. The word “combe” is of Celtic origin: “cwm”, which is a Welsh word that means “valley”. Have you seen or heard of the Welsh TV programme “Pobol y Cwm”? It’s “People of the Valley”.