The main park also had the only vineyard on National Trust land, until 2015 when it was grubbed up to allow the walled garden to be reinstated. An orchard of historic fruit trees was planted as the first stage of this plan.
History
Early history
Mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as having 12 heads of household (nine of which villagers (villeins), three as smallholders) and four tied serfs (slaves), Ickworth rendered £3 and a small vill-tax to its overlords and was valued as being worth £4 per year.[15]
...a parish, in the union and hundred of Thingoe, W. division of Suffolk, 2½ miles (S. W.) from Bury St. Edmund's; containing 62 inhabitants. This place is the property of the Marquess of Bristol, whose magnificent seat is within the parish. The mansion, consisting of a circular centre connected with wings by extensive corridors, was commenced in 1792, but the western wing is not yet completed; the park, which includes the parish, comprises about 2000 acres of rich land. The surface is varied, and the lower grounds are watered by a rivulet which expands into a broad lake, the whole forming one of the most splendid demesnes in the country. The living is a discharged rectory, valued in the king's books at £7. 11. 5½., and in the gift of the Marquess: the tithes have been commuted for £192. 1. 6., and the glebe comprises 5 acres. The church, the tower of which has been rebuilt by the present marquess, who has also added a south aisle, has a chancel in the early English style, and some windows in the decorated and later styles.[16]
The bulk of the land formed Lord Bristol's main freehold estate which was sold for public benefit to the National Trust to pay the precursor to inheritance tax in 1956.
The 2011 census does not provide a population (see above) although Ickworth is part of the west of Census Output Area E00153548, which had 275 inhabitants of which 185 lived in a detached dwelling, 16 lived in a purpose-built block of flats or tenement, five in part of a converted or bed-sit and one in a commercial building.[17]
To the east is the A143 which is linked to the A14 by the shortest route via a turning onto a minor straight road in Horringer, Westley Lane, immediately to the north. The A14 is a main East-West route in England which then leads west to:
^Samuel Lewis, ed. (1848). "Ickworth". A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
^2011 CensusArchived 11 February 2003 at the Wayback Machine E00153548 as parish facility is faulty or publicly prohibited for postcode IP29 5QE. Retrieved April 2013
