Place:Icomb, Gloucestershire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Icomb is a quiet Gloucestershire parish in the Cotswolds, close to Stow on the Wold, with typical Cotswold stone cottages, and the parish church of St Mary the Virgin which was built in the mid 13th century. The tomb of Sir John Blaket, a knight who fought with Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt, lies within the church.

end of Wikipedia contribution

The hamlet of Church Icomb is located in the parish.

Until the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844 the parish of Icomb (including the hamlet of Church Icomb) was a detached parish of Gloucestershire surrounded by Worcestershire. In some sources (e.g. GENUKI) it is stated that the hamlet of Church Icomb was in Worcestershire until 1844. The parish was considered to be part of Slaughter Hundred, no matter which county it was in.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Icomb from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"ICCOMB, a parish in Stow-on-the-Wold [registration] district, Gloucester; on the verge of the county, 2 miles SE of Stow-on-the-Wold [railway station. It comprises the hamlets of Iccomb and Church-Iccomb, (the latter formerly in Worcestershire); and its post town is Stow-on-the-Wold, under Moreton-in-the-Marsh. Acres of [Icomb] hamlet: 440. Real property, £874. Population: 12. Houses: 3. Acres of [Icomb parish]: 530. Real property:, £858. Population: 152. Houses: 34. The manor belonged formerly to the Cope family, and belongs now to the Rev. John Hopton. The old manor house shows interesting features, but has gone much into decay. A small Danish camp is on a hill. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value: £130. Patrons: the Dean and Chapter of Worcester. The church is early English; was about to be restored in 1866; and contains a monument of the Copes.

Registration Districts

Stow on the Wold Registration District, Gloucestershire (1844 - 1937)
North Cotswold Registration District (1937 - 2006)
Gloucestershire Registration District (2006 - )

Research tips

• Ordnance Survey Maps of England and Wales - Revised: Worcestershire illustrates the parish boundaries of Worcestershire when rural districts were still in existence and before the West Midlands came into being. The map publication year is 1931. The map blows up to show all the parishes and many of the small villages and hamlets. Maps in this series are now downloadable for personal use.
• British History Online has a large collection of local maps from the Ordnance Survey 1883-1893. These blow up to a size that permits viewing of individual hamlets, farms, collieries, but there is no overlapping of one map to the next, and no overall map to tie the individual ones together.
• British History Online also has three volumes of the Victoria County History of Worcestershire online. Volume 3 (published in 1913) deals with the Halfshire Hundred; Volume 4 (published in 1924) deals with the City of Worcester, as well as parishes in the hundreds of Pershore and Doddingtree. Volume 2 covers religious houses in the county. The remainder of the county is not represented in the British History Online series.
• GENUKI makes a great many suggestions as to other websites with worthwhile information about Worcestershire as well as leading to a collection of 19th century descriptions of each of the ecclesiastical parishes.
• The FamilySearch Wiki provides a similar information service to GENUKI which may be more up-to-date. An index of parishes leads to notes and references for each parish. The auxiliary website English Jurisdictions can also be helpful.
• Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service, The Hive, Sawmill Walk, The Butts, Worcester WR1 3PD (Telephone: 01905 822866, e-mail: archive@worcestershire.gov.uk) The Archives Collections Catalog Summary outlines the contents of the Archives Collection and also notes on what has been transferred to the national online service Access to Archives
• The Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry has a branch in Bromsgrove which deals in Worcestershire family history. There are also branches at Stourbridge and Worcester.
• The Midlands Historical Data project produces searchable facsimile copies of old local history books and directories of interest to genealogists. It specialises in the three counties of Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire, working closely with libraries, archives and family history societies in the area. Digital images are made freely available to participating organisations to improve public access. Free search index on its web-site to all its books. In many cases payment will be required to see the extract.
• A Vision of Britain through Time has

1. organization charts of the hierarchies of parishes within hundreds, registration districts and rural and urban districts of the 20th century
2. excerpts from a gazetteer of circa 1870 outlining individual towns and parishes
3. reviews of population through the time period 1800-1960

• Brett Langston's list of Worcestershire Registration Districts and parishes within each registration district from 1837 to the present can indicate where to find details of civil registration entries since the process began in England.
• More local sources can often be found by referring to "What Links Here" in the column on the left.

• Victoria County Histories, Worcestershire, Volume 3 on Icomb, provided by British History Online.

Gloucestershire Research Tips

• Gloucestershire Archives in Gloucester is where paper and microfilm copies of all records for this part of Gloucestershire are stored.

Online sources which may also be helpful:

• Icomb is referred to Westcote in A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 6/Slaughter hundred in the Victoria County History series provided by the website British History Online
• GENUKI gives pointers to other archive sources as well as providing some details on each parish in the county. The emphasis here is on ecclesiastical parishes (useful before 1837)
• A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 and tables of the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. Respect the copyright on this material.
• The FamilySearch Wiki for Gloucestershire provides a similar but not identical series of webpages to that provided by GENUKI
• A Vision of Britain through Time has a group of pages of statistical facts for almost every parish in the county