Ickleford, a pleasant village immediately north of Hitchin, sits on the Icknield Way. The 'ick' part of the names has been variously interpreted as referring to a man called Icel, who presumably lived and ruled in the area in the early Anglo-Saxon period, or to the Iceni, an Iron Age tribe (though their territory was many miles to the north). It would seem obvious that there's an etymological connection between the village and the trackway; however, this article by Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews, North Herts' Archaeology Officer, states unequivocally 'any connection between the placename Ickleford and the Icknield Way, the origin of which is also obscure, is fanciful'. He also states 'neither name is related to Iceni'.
Nevertheless, it's about time that Icknield Indagations got around to Ickleford. (This seems to be the 96th Herts church I've written about here.) The church is overshadowed and visually dominated by numerous tall cedar trees; the squat tower (13th century lower stage - see the south lancet window - though the bell openings and four-centred west window are 15th century) with its pyramidal roof and the mostly rendered south side are not very imposing. Intriguingly, the clerestory has oculi (round windows).
The south doorway (which has not actual door, the job of securing the church being subcontracted to the porch), however, is another matter. This must be one of the best Norman doorways in the county. It is of three orders; the first has simple triangles (repeated on the soffit); the second has a variation on the typical Norman chevron motif. There's a series of lozenges which don't quite meet to form zigzags, so they're not really chevrons at all, with a cable moulding running beneath them. In addition, each lozenge is raised in the middle, having its top and bottom anchored to the archway. At the apex (or just to its right) there are two overlapping half-lozenges, looking as if the mason miscalculated and had to fill in a blank space. The third order is similar except the lozenges are joined to form chevrons (looking like square tripods - quadpods?), and most of the V-shapes are filled with carved foliage.
The doorway also has a chevron rere-arch (ie internal). The north doorway, blocked for centuries but now opening to new church rooms, has a rere-arch with three rows of frontal (ie pointing away from the wall) chevron.
The interior is rather gloomy even on a bright day and with the lights on. The nave must be essentially Norman but there's precious little evidence of this apart from the two doors. The roof was renewed in the 15th century, and the twelve corbels date from then too. They're not as good as those of, say, Bishops Stortford or St Ippolyts, but they're worth a look.
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| Foliate head ('Green man') |
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| Humanoid creature holding a man |
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| Sad-looking woman |
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| Ugly man-monster |
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| Angel holding shield |
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| Three linked heads (Trinity?) |
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| Woman |
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| Man's head surrounded by foliage |
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| Man with staring eyes and strangely huge headdress |
Sadly, due to the poor lighting and my haste and incompetence, my photos are inadequate. I shall have to go back and try again.
The chancel was updated in the 13th century, probably at about the same time as the tower. There's an original lancet window on the north, though the stepped triplet of lancets in the east are a Victorian restoration. Which brings us to the interior's most obviously striking feature: the south aisle.
There are three bays of Romanesque arches, and above them the oculi we noticed from outside, all with bold chevron ornamentation. These are all by G G Scott* and date from his restoration of 1859.
The arch to the south chapel dates from the same time, but uses an interlinked chain motif instead of chevron.
The capitals of this arch incorporate some small figures, for example, a fish, and symbols of the Passion (such as a sword (which a Roman soldier stuck in Christ's side) and a pair of pliers (used to remove the nails when he was taken down from the cross).
Which brings us to the chancel arch. It's in the style of c1200, but surely it's as obviously Victorian as Scott's south aisle (and is presumably by him too). However, in the 1st edition (1953) of Hertfordshire in The Buildings of England series Pevsner makes the bald statement 'The chancel arch is also clearly 13th century'. When Bridget Cherry revised the volume (1977) she allowed this to stand. James Bettley further revised (and in fact almost completely rewrote) the book in 2019 and says 'The overall effect inside is vigorously Neo-Norman, where a variety of different mouldings are applied not just to the semicircular arches of the arcade but also to the circular clerestory windows. The chancel arch has similar mouldings but a pointed arch: Transitional, as it were, to the 13th century chancel.' This strongly implies that the arch is by Scott without actually explicitly stating it. How Pevsner missed this is hard to understand. I imagine he was in a hurry and rushed through a not particularly important church.
If the arch were 'genuine', however, then it would be a remarkable object (dating from a decade or two later than the south doorway), far more elaborate than most of its date and a fine example of the transition from Norman to Early English. (Compare it to the slightly later, stylistically speaking, chancel arch of Standon.) It is clearly inspired by the doorway, though there are circles rather than lozenges and the cable moulding runs above rather than below them. The spandrels have a variety of designs, especially palmettes.
In my experience Ickleford church is shut more often than it's open.
* This is of course Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-78) and not, as the Parish Council's webpage says, his grandson Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (1880-1960), the architect of Cambridge University Library, Battersea Power Station and Liverpool Cathedral, and who designed the K2 red telephone kiosk.
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| 1726 |
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| Good Samaritan painting, probably 19th cen though vaguely 17th cen style |
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| Screen early 13th cen style, presumably by Scott |
