Ickleton is a village and civil parish about south of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire, England. The village is beside the River Cam, close to where a southern branch of the Icknield Way crossed the river. The eastern and southern boundaries of the parish form part of the county boundary with Essex, and the Essex town of Saffron Walden is only about southeast of the village.
The village is mainly grouped around three streets: Abbey Street, Frogge Street, and Church Street, which leads into Brookhampton Street. The village is at the eastern end of its parish, which extends to the west.
Archaeology A Neolithic axe-head has been found in the parish, suggesting a human presence before 2500 BC.
About southwest of the village near Valance Farm is a late Bronze Age bowl barrow, close to the supposed route of the pre-Roman Icknield Way. The barrow and its surrounding ditch are well-preserved, about in diameter and high. Other Bronze Age remains found in the parish include a spear-head, a gold bracelet and a torc. South of the village on the side of Coploe Hill is a series of earth banks that may also be Bronze Age. They start about south of the village and extend south, as far as the Essex county boundary.
About south of the parish church, just west of Frogge Street, is the site of a Roman villa. The site is just across the River Cam from the site of a Roman fort at Great Chesterford. The villa was of modest size, and it had an outhouse or barn. The site was excavated in 1842.
About north of the village, just over the boundary in Duxford parish, is the site of a Romano-British settlement.
Manors
There are records of continuous Anglo-Saxon settlement at Ickleton for at least 1,000 years. Its toponym is derived from Old English, meaning "Icel's farm" or "estate associated with a man named Icel".
In the late 10th or early 11th century Elfhelm of Wratting, a thegn of King Edgar the Peaceful, left one hide of land at Icelingtune to his kinsman, also called Elfhelm. In the reign of Edward the Confessor in the middle of the 11th century, 20 hides of land were being farmed in the parish. Squitrebil held 19 of them from the King, and Estred held the other hide from Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia.
After the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, almost all English estates were taken from their owners and granted to Norman barons. In 1067 William the Conqueror granted the manor of Hichelintone to Eustace II, Count of Boulogne, making Ickleton part of the Honour of Boulogne. The Domesday Book of 1086 records 43 tenants in the parish,
In 1125 Stephen of Blois and Eustace II's granddaughter, Matilda of Boulogne, were married, making Stephen Count of Boulogne jure uxoris. In 1135 Stephen became King of England and in 1141 he granted Ickleton to Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1st Earl of Essex. However, Mandeville became an outlaw in 1143 and was killed in 1144, and Ickleton seems to have reverted to the Crown.
In about 1150 Stephen and Maud granted Ickleton to Eupheme, second wife of Aubrey de Vere, 1st Earl of Oxford, as a wedding present. In about 1153 Eupheme granted £5 worth of land at Ickleton to Colne Priory. By the end of that year Eupheme had died and the rest of Ickleton seems to have reverted to the Honour of Boulogne. When William I, Count of Boulogne died in 1159, King Henry II took possession of the Honour.
Variations in spelling the village name may include 'Igyllyngton', as seen in 1460. Court of Common Pleas; CP 40/798; first entry in http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT1/H6/CP40no798/bCP40no798dorses/IMG_1040.htm first entry, on line 4 Lesser estates There was a number of smaller manors in the parish.
Valence or Vallance By 1162 the hospital at Montmorillon in Poitou, France held an estate at Ickleton. The steward of William I, Count of Boulogne had granted the land, and the Hundred Rolls of 1279 recorded that it covered about and was tenanted by one Thomas the deacon. In 1300 Montmorillon hospital conveyed the estate to Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. In 1305 Thomas relinquished his tenancy, and the Earl granted the estate to a Sir John Wollaston for the rest of the latter's life. When the Earl died in 1324 he left the estate to his granddaughter Elizabeth de Comyn, but it continued to be called the Valence manor. Elizabeth and her husband Richard Talbot, 2nd Baron Talbot sold the manor in 1332 and it changed hands again in 1333, 1334 and 1344. In 1344 Valence manor was bought jointly by John Illegh, who was rector of Icklingham, Suffolk and Thomas Keningham, a fellow of Michaelhouse, Cambridge. In 1345 Illegh made over his share of the estate to Michaelhouse.
In 1546 during the Reformation Michaelhouse was dissolved by the Dissolution of Colleges Act 1545 (37 Hen. 8. c. 4), along with King's Hall, Cambridge, and the two were merged to form Trinity College, Cambridge. The Valence manor was granted to the new college, and in 1612 it was expanded to . When Ickleton parish was inclosed in 1814 Trinity College was allotted , which was named Vallance Farm. It increased this to by 1946, when Vallance Farm was sold.
There was a Valence manor house by 1324, and there are subsequent records of it in 1461 and 1508. It may have been the same as the Valence manor house recorded in 1612, 1685 and 1726 on the south side of Mill Lane. It was a substantial house with six rooms on the ground floor and two solars upstairs. The present Vallance farm in Grange Road has a brick farmhouse built in about 1825 for Trinity College's tenant.
Hovells By 1183 Ralph Brito held land at Ickleton of the Honour of Boulogne. By 1221 it had passed by marriage to Robert Hovel, whose bride was the daughter of Ralph's heir Thomas Brito. In 1222 a William Brito released a carucate of land to Hovel. The small estate passed to a Ralph Hovel and came to be called Hovells Manor. In 1253 Ralph Hovel confirmed a grant of of land, apparently Hovells Manor at Ickleton, to the Cistercian Tilty Abbey in Essex. Certainly Tilty Abbey held Hovells Manor by 1279, when the Hundred Rolls recorded that it covered . Under the feudal system Tilty Abbey held the estate of Robert Hovel, who in turn held it of the Honour of Boulogne.
The present Hovells house in Frogge Street was the manor house. It is an early 16th-century timber-framed building, altered and extended in the 17th century.
Durham's By 1199 Hamon Walter, a younger brother of Theobald Walter, 1st Baron Butler and the Archbishop of Canterbury Hubert Walter had granted a small estate at Ickleton called Durhams Manor to the Premonstratensian West Dereham Abbey in Norfolk. In about 1235 it was assessed at one hide. The Hundred Rolls record that in 1279 the Abbey held in Ickleton about "of Robert the son of Ryenold the knight" and possibly of Ickleton Priory. The present Durham's Farmhouse in Butcher's Hill is a late 16th-century timber-framed building with 17th-century or later additions.
Caldress or Caldrees Before 1213 the Cistercian Calder Abbey in Cumberland had received land and half a watermill at Ickleton from Richard de Luci. The estate came to be called Caldress Manor after the Abbey, which in 1279 held it of Thomas de Multon. This would seem to be the Thomas de Multon who was a descendant of Thomas de Multon, Lord de Luci, father of Thomas de Multon, 1st Baron Multon of Gilsland and died in 1287.
The present Caldress Manor house in Abbey Street may have 16th- or 17th-century origins. It was added to in about 1800. Later in the 19th century the house was altered again for Robert Herbert, first Premier of Queensland, Australia, who was born in Ickleton. The original part of the house is timber-framed and the additions are brick.
Brays In 1279 John le Bray held land at Ickleton, and in 1302 the same or a later John le Bray held land at Ickleton of the Honour of Boulogne. By 1346 the holding had passed to a John Sawston but it was still called Brays manor. It then passed through different owners and the record of succession is incomplete until 1523. In 1604 a member of the Crudd family (see Mowbrays, below) bought much of the land, and by 1704 Brays and Mowbrays manors were owned by the same Thomas Crudd. He died unmarried in 1714, leaving both manors to the Hanchett family, into which two of his sisters had married. In the inclosure of 1814 Samuel Hanchett was allotted . Brays stayed in the Hanchett family until it was sold in 1867. Robert Herbert (see Caldress or Caldrees, above) bought part of the land but sold much of it in 1873.
There was a messuage with Brays manor in 1279, but by 1545 the house on the site had gone. By 1730 the house for the manor was Little Farm, east of the churchyard. This was later combined with the house next door to form Norman Hall, which in 1867 was sold and ceased to be a farmhouse. The oldest part of Norman Hall is not Norman at all but a 15th-century timber-framed medieval hall with a cross-wing. It was altered in the 16th century and added to in the 18th and 19th centuries. The exterior is finished with a combination of flint, brick and 18th-century pargetting.
Limburys By 1279 Roger de Neville held about of demesne under Thomas de Multon. In 1302 Philip de Neville held of a knight's fee at Ickleton, which by 1316 had passed to Sir John Limbury. In 1335 Sir John was Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and held at Ickleton of the de Multons. The estate passed to Sir John's heirs and descendants and came to be called Limburys manor. In 1433 Elizabeth, Lady Swinburne (née Limbury) died and in 1456 her executor sold the manor with about to Clare Hall, Cambridge.
Limbury manor had a messuage by 1279 and two in 1388 and 1389. In 1545 the farmstead was in Frog Street. In 1704 the farm-buildings were still there but there was no house. After Clare Hall bought Mowbrays manor in 1819 it let Limburys and Mowbrays together and the tenants lived at Mowbrays (see below). The present house called Limburys is a flint rubblestone house in Abbey Street dating probably from the early to mid 19th century.
Mowbrays In 1279 the heirs of a William de Beauchamp of Bedford held at Ickleton of West Dereham Abbey (see above). This descended by a female heir to the Mowbray family, and when John de Mowbray, 4th Baron Mowbray died in 1368 is estate included 30 acres at Ickleton held of the Honour of Boulogne. He left the estate to his son Thomas, who in 1397 was created 1st Duke of Norfolk. The manor stayed in the Mowbray family until John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk and his wife Elizabeth conveyed it to feoffees in 1469.
The estate continued to be called Mowbrays manor, and in the 1540s it was among lands bought by an Ickleton yeoman, John Crudd, who enlarged the estate. Mowbrays descended in the Crudd family and its heirs the Hanchett, Warner and Brooke families. A Mrs Brooke held more than in 1810 and died leaving the estate to her children in 1812. They were allocated south of the village in the inclosure of 1814, which they then sold to Clare College, Cambridge in 1819. The college still owned the farm in 1972.
Mowbrays seems to have had no manor house in the 14th century but there may have been one in 1438. The present house called Mowbrays in Church Street is a late 15th- or early 16th-century timber-framed, jettied, gabled building, which originally had a central hall and two cross-wings. Late in the 17th century it was raised to two storeys and a west wing was added. Red-brick diagonal chimneystacks were built, which have the date 1690 scratched on them. The back of the house is decorated with pargetting. Mowbrays is a Grade II* listed building.
Later history