Icomb Place (pronounced "Ickum") is a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

on the edge of the village of Icomb, near Stow on the Wold in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

. The word "place" in this context is thought to be a precursor of "palace".

Description

The house is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. Mentioned in the Doomsday Book and owned by

Roger de Lacy Roger de Lacy (died after 1106) was an Anglo-Norman nobleman, a Marcher Lord on the Welsh border. Roger was a castle builder, particularly at Ludlow Castle. Lands and titles From Walter de Lacy (died 1085) he inherited Castle Frome, Herefor ...

at the time, the house has undergone considerable alteration since its 11th-century beginnings with only the moat remaining. The house seems to have started out as a modest courtyard dwelling, but later (some time before 1423) was made grander by the creation of the great hall and remodelling of the solar (with barrel vaulted timber roof). The building has many unusual features: for example, no room has a right angle on its plan view, all rooms being a trapezium in form. The oldest parts of the building date from between 1086 and 1420 include the

undercroft An undercroft is traditionally a cellar or storage room, often brick-lined and vaulted, and used for storage in buildings since medieval times. In modern usage, an undercroft is generally a ground (street-level) area which is relatively open ...

(northwest wing), the battlemented gateway and the southeast wing, originally the kitchens and servants' quarters. The great hall is disproportionally large and its upper end obtrudes into the line of the solar range. It is a substantial room of and is divided into five bays by braced collar-beam trusses in the walls at the side. Other similar trusses extend along the entire north range which contain two original bedrooms. These bedrooms have fireplaces connected to mid-level chimney stacks. The 17th-century parts of the house on the east elevation include a great chamber on the first floor which contains a pair of one of the world's earliest surviving flying (or floating) mullion windows. The alterations carried out in ''c''.1420 were undertaken by the then owner, Sir John Blacket, "the hero of Agincourt" (who fought alongside Henry V of England at the Battle of Agincourt and is buried in the nearby church). At this point the house had two courtyards, and most of the oak timber used for the re-roofing was felled in the winter of 1421/1422 from the nearby

Cirencester Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...

area. After a period of dereliction during the 18th and 19th centuries the house was bought by Samuel Simpson Hayward, the father of

George Simpson-Hayward George Hayward Thomas Simpson-Hayward (7 June 1875 – 2 October 1936) was an English cricketer who played in five Test matches in 1910 and took six wickets on debut in the first innings. He is notable for being the last serious exponent of u ...

, who made alterations to the building. The renovation at the start of the 20th century demolished the south wing and southern courtyard and constructed a rock garden and extensive greenhouses, some of which remain today.

References

*{{cite book , first=Christopher Simon , last=Sykes , title=Ancient English Houses 1240–1612 , location=London , publisher=Chatto & Windus , date=1988 , isbn=0701131764 Buildings and structures completed in 1230 Houses completed in the 13th century Buildings and structures completed in 1420 Houses completed in the 15th century Grade I listed houses in Gloucestershire Country houses in Gloucestershire