Ickford

Ickford is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority area of Buckinghamshire, England.

[2] From the 12th to the 14th centuries it evolved through Ycford, Hicford, Hitford, Ikeford and Ickeforde[2] before later reaching its present form.

[2] It is recorded that before the Conquest a second manor at Ickford was held by Ulf, a man of Harold Godwinson.

[2] The Domesday Book records Robert, Count of Mortain as holding this second manor, with the Benedictine Grestain Abbey as his mesne lord.

[2] By the time his great-grandson John held the manor in 1302–03, the family carried the surname "atte Water".

[2] In the 14th century the atte Water family gave land to Bisham Priory in Berkshire.

[2] In the 16th century the Bisham Priory lands passed to Thomas Tipping, who from 1585 held the "manors of Great and Little Ickford".

[3][4] The walls of one of the ground floor rooms in the north block has late-17th-century decorative painting now largely concealed behind early-18th-century panelling.

[2] The north aisle has one Norman and Early English Gothic 13th-century lancet windows, one of which has a later rere-arch with cusped spandrels, each with a carved rosette.

[2] The large stone monument to the first Thomas Tipping used to be in the north aisle, but in 1906 was moved to its present position in the chancel.

[7] The Puritan minister Calybute Downing held the living of the parish from 1632[2] but it was then conferred on Gilbert Sheldon[2][5] in 1636.

[9] Ickford had a bridge over the River Thame by 1237, when repairs were ordered with oak from Brill Wood.

Its extensive roof and almost all of its walls are hung with wooden shingles,[12] possibly in response to the shortage of many types of building material after the Second World War.

[citation needed] For more than 60 years an annual tug of war with neighbouring Tiddington has been held each summer across the River Thame.

Late-16th- or early-17th-century monument in St Nicholas' parish church to the first Thomas Tipping
St. Nicholas' chancel, showing 14th-century Decorated Gothic east window with reticulated tracery and 14th-century roof
Part of St. Nicholas' north aisle, with lancet windows of different ages and elevations
Early English Gothic lancet window in St. Nicholas' north aisle with later cusped rere-arch
West gallery in St. Nicholas' nave
The Rising Sun public house is a 17th-century timber-framed building with brick nogging and a thatched roof. [ 10 ]
Ickford Village Hall
4 Bridge Road is a 17th-century thatched cottage whose front was rebuilt in the 18th century. [ 13 ] The stone building in the background is the Royal Oak public house, which is no longer trading.
The Royal Oak is a 19th-century building with rubblestone gable walls and an ashlar facade. It is not currently trading as a public house.
A pair of Shire horses in harness resting outside the Rising Sun in 2004