A Bidford Query - Icknield House

Mr. Dennis Malin of Bidford-on-Avon is trying to discover details of a house there. He already knows a certain amount and intends to pursue his enquiries but anything that others can contribute will be welcomed by him Mr.Malin encloses a map of the 1880's but does not state where it came from. Part of this map (below) shows the position of Icknield House.

Mr. Malin writes: 'Icknield House appears to have been built: the cellar and foundations are much older than the house itself, which is built with brick from Bidford brickyards.

I have traced the house back to l879, so perhaps at some time it could have been destroyed by fire but I can find no record of this: nor of the suggestion that at one time it was an asylum.

At the rear is a malt-house, which is much older than the house: adjacent to this once stood a public house, which in the early part of this Century returned to living accommodation and was pulled down around 1947. Perhaps this belonged to the Wadley family, -who seemed to own Icknield House for a number of years: in 1879 the; Wadleys were maltsters, so the ownership of the pub seems feasible.

The house was originally a farm, with 38 acres: it stayed with the Wadley family well into the 1900s (I found that they still had it in 1917). I hope to write, again when I find out more about the defunct pub'