In the valley of Combs

Mike Smith visits the idyllic secluded village near Chapel-en-le-Frith and bounded by the high gritstone hills of Castle Naze, Combs Moss and Ladder Hill

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Scottie McFrith’s affectionate tribute to this lovely Peak District valley remains as valid today as it did when his words were published 52 years ago in Peggy Bellhouse’s book, The Story of Combs, My Village. Embraced on three sides by the gritstone hills of the Dark Peak, including the great ridge of Combs Moss, the village of Combs sits in a verdant valley that would be enclosed almost completely if it were not for the mile-long lane which approaches the centre of the settlement from the north.

‘THE LADY WITH THE LAMP’

A noted Derbyshire Unitarian called William Nightingale succumbed to the considerable charms of Combs in 1840, when he purchased Pyegreave, a substantial house located over 1,000ft above the village and surrounded by 12 acres of land. 12th May 2020 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of William’s daughter in the Italian city after which she was named. Florence would gain fame as a brilliant statistician, a social reformer and the founder of modern nursing. She came to be known as ‘The Lady with the Lamp’ when she made her nightly rounds of the hospital where she trained the nurses who cared for soldiers wounded in the Crimean War.