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Coombe Abbey is situated some five miles to the east of Coventry and is approached by a long tree-lined drive from the Binley-Brinklow road. Now a hotel set in a Country Park, in 1961 it served as a Hall of Residence for apprentices of the General Electric Company Ltd., and has had a long and varied history. Over the past eight hundred years it has been a Cistercian abbey, a ruin, the temporary home of a King's daughter, the seat of titled families and a private residence. It has associations with the author of the "Morte d'Arthur", the Wars of the Roses, the Lady Jane Grey, the Stuart Family and the Gunpowder Plot, the Thirty Years War and the English Civil War. The history of Coombe is a fascinating story.
The Story of Coombe Abbey was originally published in 1961 by the House Committee of Coombe Abbey as a 40 page booklet. From 1960 to 1961 I was privileged to live at Coombe during my apprenticeship with the G.E.C. I soon discovered that there was no ready source of information about the house and its history so I determined to remedy the situation. Having very little free time I drew all my information from a single, easily accessible archive - the Coventry and Warwickshire Collection of Coventry Libraries, in whose reading room I spent several hours each Saturday during the winter and early spring. Trained as a physicist, and certainly no historian, I rapidly became aware of my limited knowledge of the subject and it was with some uneasiness that I brought my text to publication that summer.
I had almost forgotten about the booklet when, in November 2003, I was contacted by Peter Page, one of my contemporaries at Coombe. He asked me whether I would be prepared to assist him in creating a revised on-line version of The Story ... I could not refuse. The product of our collaboration is before you now. I have seized the opportunity to correct a few errors, mostly minor, in my original text and to clarify some of the more confusing passages. I have also restored a few episodes which had to be cut from the printed version to save space. There have been many changes at Coombe since 1961; in ownership, use and in the buildings themselves. Peter has appraised me of these and has done much local research which has enabled us to extend the text and to bring the story up to date. He has also visited the Abbey frequently over the past few months and has taken many excellent new photographs which he has used to complement those which I took for the original booklet. As Web-Master, Peter has been entirely responsible for designing and constructing this on-line edition.
COOMBE ABBEY : WEST FRONT 1684
Finally, a word on the spelling of the word Coombe. Before the twentieth century the spelling was usually Combe. Indeed, the area is still known as Combe Fields. In the text I have tried to match the spelling to the period under consideration.
David Motkin
Isle of Wight
February 2004
COOMBE ABBEY : WEST FRONT 1961
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