Page 8 - Ickford NP Sustainability Heritage Assessment

8 VISION FOR ICKFORD : BUILT HERITAGE ASSESSMENT : ICKFORD

Key views and vistas located towards the front of their plots, these buildings
also serve to contain views. Some buildings are thrown
into visual prominence by virtue of their position to road
Long distance views. junctions, pinch points, or bends in the roads. Significant

Ickford is a low lying village in the flood plain, surrounded examples are mentioned below:
by open countryside. As a result views into and out of the Church area: The view along Church Road is linear,
village are important, particularly on the footpaths from and initially terminates in the white painted Church Farm
Worminghall to the west, where there is a degree of visual Cottage. This lane has an open aspect due to the brook that
connectivity between the villages. runs along the roadside. On reaching Church Farm Cottage,
where the road forks, there is a pleasing vista of Church
Farm and outbuildings, The Grange, and the gabled roof of
St Nicholas’s Church. The Old Rectory is more hidden,
but former Village Reading Room, hard to the roadside,
funnels the view down to the churchyard gate.
Little Ickford is particularly picturesque. There is a
constrained view down to The Close and Manor Farm,
View accross pasture towards Worminghall terminated by the gables of the historic buildings. Historic
The cluster of historic buildings around the Rising Sun buildings line either side of the road, exhibiting a wealth of
are prominent in views across the open ridge and furrow traditional features and building materials. Views up this
pasture, the patterns of their rooflines a pleasing lane take in the imposing New Manor House/6 and Ickford
juxtaposition of shapes, punctuated by mature trees. Views House, which create a pinch point with the village pond
from the west towards the church are more limited by the beyond. Bulls Lane curves around to the east, and a variety
tree cover, although the gables of The Grange are visible. of residential buildings lie on the northern side.
The rooflines of houses on Farm Close are also visible in Sheldon Road: Looking east to the junction with
the landscape from this vantage point. Bridge Road there is a pleasing collection of white rendered
Views out of the village to the west take in the low- gables and slate roofs created by the grouping of historic
lying fields between Ickford and Worminghall. The tree cottages at this point.
cover in Worminghall village dominates the vista, with Beyond these there is a further view that takes in the
glimpses of houses and the willows that line the brick cottages leading up to the road junction by the pond.
watercourses being particularly picturesque. There are also views across the hayfield to the rear of
Views to the east are towards Shabbington. This village historic buildings on Sheldon Road, in particular the Old
is set on a ridge of higher land and is thus easily visible. The Shop and Elvan Cottage, and the former Baptist chapel.
rooflines of houses are more dominant in the view as a Bridge Road: Beyond Whirlpool Farm, houses line
result of lesser tree cover. the eastern side of the road. Hunters House has an imposing
Long range views into the village from the south are façade and there is a borrowed view through a gap between
limited by the curve of the road and the height of the double this and the more built up part of Bridge Road. The view
bridge, with a longer range view of the village curtailed by east is across pastureland towards Little Ickford.
the agricultural buildings at Whirlpool Farm. Once past There is a pinch point created where the western side
these there is a long linear view up Bridge Road, with much of the road becomes residential development at Hunters
of the western side remaining open to farmland.
Due to hedgerows which line the main Shabbington to
Worminghall Road there is no view into Ickford itself from
the north. The two lanes which access the village are closely
lined with hedgerow.

Views within the village:
Within Ickford, views tend to be focused along the length
of the main roads through the village and are primarily
contained by the hedges and trees that line each side of The Rising Sun, Public House and No. 34, an important
sections of the carriageway. Where groups of buildings are grouping of historic buildings

VISION FOR ICKFORD – NEIGHBOURHOOD DEVELOPMENT PLAN
www.visionforickford.co.uk