Combles in the Middle Ages

Local history sources mention traces of two Gallo-Roman settlements within the boundaries of Combles, possible evidence of very early occupation of the area. This has not yet been confirmed by official archaeological records and should therefore be treated with caution. The village name appears in several early forms: “Camuli” around 1090, “Combla” in 1106, “Cumbi” in 1129, then “Cumbles” or “Combles” in the 12th century. These variants show how old the name is and how it changed through medieval copying and usage. A commonly suggested interpretation links the name to ideas of height or a summit — a place-name theory consistent with the local landscape, but a theory rather than a certainty. The parish is generally thought to have taken shape in the 11th century. In 1181, the Benedictine Abbey of Mont-Saint-Quentin, near Péronne, and the chapter of Saint-Fursy disputed the ownership of Combles. The village finally went to the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Quentin.