Humble beginnings
You can trace Ickworth’s origins back to the Domesday book when it was merely one of hundreds of assets belonging to the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds. Its association with the Hervey family began three centuries later in 1432, when Thomas Hervey acquired the land by marriage. Through success and scandal, Ickworth was the family’s home for the next 500 years. Thomas’ descendants set about transforming the ancient deer-park into an aristocratic paradise.
Prior to the iconic building at Ickworth you know and love today, an earlier manor house stood near the church. The house dates back to the 13th century, but had been added to over the years by the Hervey family, it was demolished around 1700. There are no pictures and remarkably little is known about the house. We do know that Lord Arthur Hervey made a plan in 1844, during an exceptionally dry summer, when the foundations of the house and garden walls were identifiable as parch marks in the grass. Part of the site was excavated in 1982 proving that his plan was substantially correct.
The manor house was rented out in the late 17th century and seemed to have become quite derelict. The rambling old house was also outdated and too unfashionable for an affluent mover and shaker like the 1st Earl of Bristol.
He took the decision to demolish the old house and build a new one, apparently consulting Vanbrugh, the architect of Blenheim Palace. Unfortunately, he never got to build his new house and instead a smaller house elsewhere on the estate was converted and enlarged. He also renovated the church, where all Ickworth’s owners have been laid to rest. Residents of the tiny hamlet of Ickworth were rehoused in neighbouring Horringer, and their former dwellings demolished to make way for pasture. The next generation of Herveys made even more of an impact on the landscape.
Sadly the site of the manor house was ploughed during the Second World war, but dry summers can still reveal some of the parch marks, which Lord Arthur recorded. The house probably resembled a rather more irregular version of Melford Hall.