Икльтон: История и археология английской деревни.

Ickleton is a village and civil parish about 9 mile (14 km) south of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire, England. The village is beside the River Cam, close to where a southern branch of the Icknield Way crossed the river. The eastern and southern boundaries of the parish form part of the county boundary with Essex, and the Essex town of Saffron Walden is only about 4.5 mile (7 km) southeast of the village. The village is mainly grouped around three streets: Abbey Street, Frogge Street, and Church Street, which leads into Brookhampton Street. The village is at the eastern end of its parish, which extends 2 mile (3 km) to the west.

A Neolithic axe head has been found in the parish, suggesting a human presence before 2500 BC. About 1.5 mile (2 km) southwest of the village near Valance Farm is a late Bronze Age bowl barrow, close to the supposed route of the pre Roman Icknield Way. Other Bronze Age remains found in the parish include a spear head, a gold bracelet and a torq. The site is just across the River Cam from the site of a Roman fort at Great Chesterford. The villa was of modest size, and it had an outhouse or barn. The site was excavated in 1842.

There was a number of smaller manors in the parish.

By 1162 the hospital at Montmorillon in Poitou, France held an estate at Ickleton. The steward of William I, Count of Boulogne had granted the land, and the Hundred Rolls of 1279 recorded that it covered about and was tenanted by one Thomas the deacon. In 1300 Montmorillon hospital conveyed the estate to Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. In 1305 Thomas relinquished his tenancy, and the Earl granted the estate to a Sir John Wollaston for the rest of the latter's life. When the Earl died in 1324 he left the estate to his granddaughter Elizabeth de Comyn, but it continued to be called the Valence manor. Elizabeth and her husband Richard Talbot, 2nd Baron Talbot sold the manor in 1332 and it changed hands again in 1333, 1334 and 1344. In 1344 Valence manor was bought jointly by John Illegh, who was rector of Icklingham, Suffolk and Thomas Keningham, a fellow of Michaelhouse, Cambridge. In 1345 Illegh made over his share of the estate to Michaelhouse.

By 1183 Ralph Brito held land at Ickleton of the Honour of Boulogne. It is an early 16th century timber framed building, altered and extended in the 17th century. It was added to in about 1800. The exterior is finished with a combination of flint, brick and 18th century pargetting.

In 1279 the heirs of a William de Beauchamp of Bedford held at Ickleton of West Dereham Abbey (see above). This descended by a female heir to the Mowbray family, and when John de Mowbray, 4th Baron Mowbray died in 1368 is estate included 30 acres at Ickleton held of the Honour of Boulogne. He left the estate to his son Thomas, who in 1397 was created 1st Duke of Norfolk. The manor stayed in the Mowbray family until John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk and his wife Elizabeth conveyed it to feoffees in 1469. gabled The priory was dedicated to St Mary Magdalene. The mill closed soon after 1900, and by 1925 it had been converted into a house. It is a timber framed building, originally one house and later divided into two cottages. By 1728 there was a pub in Abbey Street called the Lion. It is currently called the Ickleton Lion and is controlled by Greene King Brewery. There was a New Inn in Brookhampton Street that was trading in 1884. and The Greyhound in the south of the parish on the edge of Great Chesterford was open by 1851 and still trading in 1972. It closed before the end of the 20th century. As well as the Ickleton Lion, the village has a social club.

There are records from 1601 and 1625 that Ickleton had a schoolmaster, and from 1638 and 1678 that part of the church was used as the schoolroom. However, the school later lapsed and it was not until 1804 that the vicar started a Sunday school. There was a day school in the parish by 1825 and two by 1833, which seem to have been dame schools. In 1846 a British School was opened in the Congregational chapel's schoolroom. It had 70 pupils an 1870, was still open in 1888 but there is no later record of it. The vicar started a Church of England day school in about 1848 in a room in Mill Lane. A purpose built school and schoolmaster's house for the school in Church Street were completed in 1871 and enlarged in 1884. The number of pupils increased from 57 in 1872 to 103 in 1888. The school closed in 1961, was bought by the village and converted into the village hall.

In 1845 the Eastern Counties Railway opened its extension from (Essex) down the Cam Valley to , and beyond. The line crosses the river at Ickleton and skirts the eastern edge of the parish. The nearest station is across the river at , about 1.6 mile (3 km) southeast of Ickleton village. British Rail electrified the line in 1987. It is now the West Anglia Main Line. In 1979 the M11 Motorway was extended from Stansted in Essex to Stump Cross, about 1 mile (2 km) east of Ickleton on the Essex–Cambridgeshire boundary. In 1980 the motorway was extended again, from Junction 9 to Cambridge, passing through Ickleton parish only about west of the village.

As well as the Ickleton Lion and Ickleton Social Club, the village has a combined village shop and post office and a few small businesses providing employment in the village, notably Team Consulting, a medical device design & development consultancy, based at the Abbey Barns business campus.