Hellscombe sits beneath Peaks Wood, close to the intersection of Lottage Road and baydon road, a few miles north of Aldbourne. baydon road follows (mostly) the path of the Roman Road, Ermine Street. Just west of here the Roman's put a bend in their road to ease the gradient up/down the hill. About 1,000 feet beyond the trees at the top of the hill runs the M4, the freeway from london to Wales.
Quite why this particular combe picked up the moniker of Hellscombe is lost to me. It doesn't look particularly hellish.
By the way, a ‘combe' is another form of ‘coombe', a word for a valley – very similar in pronunciation to the Welsh ‘Cwm', which also refers to a valley.
Below is a black-and-white version of this image.
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