Combe Road has some fascinating houses and a curious, complicated history. Originally, called Coomb Lane. It can be clearly seen, along with some intended roads, on Plan from Lease and Release of Isabella Place on Combe Down dated 15-16 January 1805. Thus it was one of the earliest roads in Combe Down village.
The land to the East became part of the Hadley Estate. The land to the West was sold to Harry Salmon (1754 – 1827) a solicitor who sold leases for quarrying.
From then on cottages and housing started to be built for the quarry masters, quarry workers and others who provided services to the increasing population.
Cotterell’s map of 1852 shows what was built by then.
Unfortunately, like North Road, Quarry Bottom / Rise / Vale and Greendown Place / Greendown Terrace, the houses in this area make it difficult to find published information about the inhabitants for they were working class people and the ‘social medium’ of the day, the newspaper, did not really follow their world unless criminality or scandal was involved which gives a distorted image of people’s lives.
Prospect Place was, obviously, begun well before 1820 when an advert for the houses there and some land suitable for building more appeared in the Chronicle.
