Ickworth Church (more formally known as St Mary's Church, Ickworth) is a former

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

in Ickworth Park near

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as ''Bury,'' is a cathedral as well as market town and civil parish in the West Suffolk District, West Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St. Edmunds an ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

History

The church is within view of Ickworth House, now owned by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

. The church served Ickworth village, which no longer exists. With the growth of the Ickworth Estate, the church became mainly associated with those living and working in Ickworth House and its Park. It is also the main burial place of the Hervey family, who owned and lived at Ickworth from the mid 15th century to 1998.

Church fabric

The church is medieval with major 19th-century alterations. The chancel is mid C13, the north nave doorway is C13 or C14. The chancel has a C15 restored south nave window. Other features include: a C15 plain Octagonal limestone font. A C17 octagonal pulpit, converted around 1775 into a 3-decker with balustrading and original graining. Twenty C17 and C18 marble wall and floor slabs in the chancel, many with carved achievements to members of the Hervey family. Fourteen C17 and C18 wall tablets in the nave to members of the Hervey family and others. A C15 red-line wall painting of the angel of the Annunciation on the east wall of chancel. Roundels of painted Flemish glass dating from C14-C19.

Hervey family tombs

The Herveys, who owned Ickworth for almost 500 years, are buried in the vault under the church and in the churchyard. The line of those laid to rest here begins with Thomas Hervey (d. 1467), who was the first of this family to own Ickworth. After him, almost every

Earl Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the Peerages in the United Kingdom, peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of ''earl'' never developed; instead, ...

and every Marquess of Bristol has been buried there, as were many of their daughters and wives. The 6th Marquess (d. 1985) was buried in

Menton Menton (; in classical norm or in Mistralian norm, , ; ; or depending on the orthography) is a Commune in France, commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera, close to the Italia ...

(

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

) for 25 years until the 8th Marquess had him reinterred in the vault of Ickworth Church in October 2010.

The Ickworth Church Conservation Trust (ICCT)

The ICCT was set up by the 8th Marquess of Bristol to safeguard the future of Ickworth Church. His half-brother the 7th Marquess bought the church from the

Church Commissioners The Church Commissioners is a body which administers the property assets of the Church of England. It was established in 1948 and combined the assets of Queen Anne's Bounty, a fund dating from 1704 for the relief of poor clergy, and of the Eccle ...

(after they made it redundant in the 1970s) in 1986, after which it fell into a state of disrepair. The 8th Marquess created the ICCT in 2006, and transferred ownership of the Church to the ICCT, of which he is Trustee and Chairman. The Church has now been restored and is open to the public after a lengthy restoration project costing £1.2 million.

Popular culture

Prior to the restoration of the church, it was visited by writer and television producer

Steven Moffat Steven William Moffat (; born 18 November 1961) is a Scottish television writer, television producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work as the second showrunner and head writer of the 2005 revival of the BBC sci-fi television ser ...

who used the chained-up gates and statues in various states of disrepair in the churchyard as inspiration for popular ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' monsters the Weeping Angels, first introduced in the 2007 episode "

Blink Blinking is a bodily function; it is a semi-autonomic rapid closing of the eyelid. A single blink is determined by the forceful closing of the eyelid or inactivation of the levator palpebrae superioris and the activation of the palpebral por ...

References

External links

* {{coord, 52.2184, 0.6518, type:landmark_region:GB-SFK, display=title Ickworth Grade II* listed churches in Suffolk Borough of St Edmundsbury