Skip Navigation
 
 

Welcome to Bedford Borough Council

Home > Community Histories > Ickwell > The Village of Ickwell in General

The Village of Ickwell in General

Ickwell Green in 1873 [X758/1/17/34]
Ickwell Green in 1873 [X758/1/17/34]

Landscape

The land is low lying, only about 110 feet above sea level at the maypole. The solid, or underlying, geology is a type of mudstone called Oxford Clay Formation, laid down between 154 and 164 million years ago in the warm, shallow seas of the Jurassic Period. The soil is, therefore, clay, with some glacially deposited till north and south of Caldecote Road.

 

Ickwell Green July 2007
Ickwell Green July 2007

Name

The name Ickwell is first recorded in about 1170. The name mean's "Gicca's stream or spring". Recorded forms of the name include:

  • Ikewelle: c. 1170;
  • Gikewelle: c. 1180-1286;
  • Gykewelle: c. 1180-1286;
  • Chikewelle: 13th century;
  • Chykewelle: 13th century;
  • Gigewell: 1202;
  • Gikeswell: 1227;
  • Jekewelle: 1240-1458;
  • Yikewell: 1287;
  • Yekewell: 1287-1458;
  • Gekyewelle: 1360;
  • Zykwell: 1379;
  • Zekewell: 1400;
  • Ikwell: 1552.

The Village Hall in March 2010
The Village Hall in March 2010

Administrative History

Ickwell has always been a hamlet, now a large one, in the ancient parish of Northill.