Services

Icomb has a small but committed worshipping congregation which includes families. Many of the services at Icomb are traditional Book of Common Prayer, with special services for the major festivals which are family orientated.

Contact:
Mr David Cowdery, churchwarden, tel. 07478 764004

The Church & Parish

Offa. King of Mercia (757-796). sometime friend to Charlemagne and responsible for persuading Pope Hadrian to make Lichfield the third English archbishopric (it lasted 15 years), gave Icomb to ‘the church (St Mary’s) at Worcester’. And to that county and diocese it belonged for over 1,000 years until the Detached Parishes Act 1844 ended its detachment. Domesday shows St Mary’s, Worcester, as holding one hide at Church Icomb for the victualling of monks, and the Dean & Chapter of Worcester Cathedral are still joint patrons of the benefice.

A blocked Norman doorway stands in the nave’s north wall – and probably the first church was built in Norman times. The present church of nave, chancel, south transept and south porch is mainly 13th century; the west tower with its saddleback roof and plain windows dates from 1600. Entrance is by the south porch, which was restored in 1871 but in its previous style – with high open doorway, open double-window and stone seats. The inner doorway is original.

Inside, a 12-row nave leads through a splendid arch to a spectacular chancel. which is virtually unchanged since the 13th century. The triple-lancet east window and three single lancets on both the north and south walls are connected by a string course. The inner arches of the single windows are supported on individually designed corbel heads – two faces on one may be those of the founder and his wife. In the corner is a piscina with separate openings to its basin and credence. The east window stained-glass painting of the Risen Christ with St Mary and St John is by Powell of Whitefriars. whose work is also in St Mary’s, Lower Slaughter and St Laurence’s, Wyck Rissington.

A second fine arch connects the nave and south transept, as does a curious cut-through passage by the font. At one end is the recumbent effigy of Sir John Blaket, once of Icomb Place and believed to have fought at Agincourt. He lies under a stone canopy on a chest decorated with seven sculptures, having left his body to this church and 3s 4d to St Mary’s, Worcester for the upkeep of his tomb. The tomb was restored in 1985 but the head of his dog is missing. The transept commemorates several owners of Icomb Place. Geoffrey Webb’s 1947 stained glass in the 15th century window above the transept altar commemorates Revd Augustine Williams who led the 1871 restoration of this church – and nearby is the Worcester Herald’s account.