Icomb Place

Icomb Place is a Grade I manor house at Icomb village, rebuilt around 1420, probably by Sir John Blaket (commemorated in a monument in the Church of St Mary, Icomb) on the site of an earlier moated manor house. The building was altered in the mid to late 17th century and was partially demolished in the early to mid 20th century.

The original plan comprised ranges of buildings set around two courtyards with the hall at the centre and the northern entrance range set skew to the remainder of the plan. Most of the range forming the southern side was demolished in the early to mid 20th century. The building is constructed of coursed squared and dressed limestone in two colours, with dressed stone quoins, though some areas of walling degenerate into rubble-built construction. The roof is covered in stone slate with ashlar stacks. A 20th-century flat-roofed garage has been added to the west range.

The entrance front is two storeys with a two-storey porch breaking forwards slightly off-centre to the left, flanked by two original wall chimneys which project out at first floor level. The fenestration is irregular across a five-bay front, comprising three two-light windows with hollow chamfers, pointed heads, carved spandrels and stopped hoods, and two three-light stilted-headed hollow-chamfered stone-mullioned casements with carved spandrels and stopped hoods. Two similar but four-light windows light the ground and first floors of the right gable end. Two single-light and one two-light stone-mullioned casement with rectangular surrounds also light the entrance front. The porch contains 20th-century painted double doors within a moulded Tudor-arched surround with forward-facing buttresses either side of the doorway. A fine four-light window within a rectangular surround features ogee-curved heads with a pair of oval openings above each light and a stopped hood. The interior splay has a pierced Tudor-arched rere-arch. The front is topped by a battlemented parapet with stepped coping and roll-cross saddles.

The east range is two and a half storeys tall with five Cotswold dormers fitted with 20th-century wooden casements, timber lintels and horizontal glazing bars. The ground and first floors have irregular fenestration, including three restored cross windows to the first floor, one within a moulded architrave. Single-light, two-light and three-light stone-mullioned casements, some probably mid 17th century with hollow chamfers and some 19th century, light the range. Two 19th-century stone-mullioned canted bays are present on the ground floor. A wing with half-hipped extension projects forwards to the right on the south front. The gable end and left-hand return have 20th-century single-light and two-light casements. A 19th-century porch with a Tudor-arched entrance with foliate spandrels is positioned to the left. A tall 15th-century stone-mullioned cross window lights the hall to the left of the porch. The lower lights of this window have pointed heads whilst the upper, taller lights have ogee-curved heads with a pair of oval openings above and stopped hoods.

A one-and-a-half-storey range, probably rebuilt in the late 18th to 19th centuries and constructed parallel with the hall, breaks forwards to the left. Three two-light half dormers light the upper floor, and fenestration comprises 20th-century two-light casements. A plain heraldic shield within a surround decorated with blind tracery, possibly reused, is present in the right gable end, with a blocked opening above. The west front is now largely obscured by the garage and fencing.

From the courtyard, the north side of the great hall is lit by two tall 15th-century cross-mullioned windows lighting the south wall. A plank door within a moulded four-centred arched surround with casement mouldings opens to the courtyard. The spandrels contain a quatrefoil with plain heraldic shields at the centre. A similar archway, now obscured by the 19th-century porch, lies on the south side of the former screens passage. The solar or west wing to the right of the great hall is two storeys, with a six-light hollow-chamfered stone-mullioned casement with stilted heads to each light on the ground floor, a central king mullion and a stopped hood. Above is a five-light stone-mullioned window with ogee-curved cinquefoil heads with tracery and a stopped hood.

A two-storey stone-mullioned bay window stands to the right in the angle between the west range and the entrance front. The ground floor features ogee-curved stone-mullioned windows with tracery and small trefoils above. The upper floor has ogee-curved cinquefoil-headed lights and tracery. A stopped hood with large stops in the form of human heads crowns the upper floor window. A string divides the floors, and a parapet features a beast's head gargoyle. This window may once have formed an access between the west and north ranges. The east range contains a mid 20th-century gallery in 17th-century style with panelled walls lit by a three-light casement and a single carved dragon panel below. Gable-end, axial and lateral stacks with moulded cappings complete the exterior.

The interior preserves a great hall open to rafters across five bays with original arch-braced collar-beam roof trusses, triple purlins and three tiers of curved wind bracing. The base of some form of lantern is visible halfway along the ridge at the west end. A former partition dividing the hall from the screens passage has been removed. Two blocked Tudor-arched doorways in the east wall would formerly have given access to the kitchen and buttery. A late 16th to early 17th-century fireplace in the south wall is flanked by fluted Ionic pilasters and has a panelled segmental-headed pediment with a moulded console bracket at the centre of the entablature. A mid 20th-century gallery in 17th-century style contains four panels with carved dragons. The solar wing has a wagon ceiling and a fireplace with a moulded rectangular surround. An upstairs room in the solar contains a 17th-century carved oak cupboard door with nulling at the top. An attic bedroom on the west range retains wall painting approximately 1.5 metres square depicting a sailing ship in full sail in red or brown paint. The north entrance range features roll-moulded tie beams. Numerous flat-chamfered Tudor-arched doorways and fireplaces are distributed throughout the interior.

From the Blakets the house passed successively through the female line into the hands of the Baskerville and Milbourne families. During the 16th century it belonged to the Whitney family. In 1712 it belonged to Henry Cope, son of Thomas and Elizabeth Whitney, commemorated in a monument in the south transept of the church.