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Ickles
Ickles is situated west of Rotherham Town Centre in the floodplain of the
River Don. This was a predominately agricultural area until the Nineteenth Century filled up the river valley with industry. Ickles was a small hamlet on the Sheffield Road. After much
digging the only meaning I have come across for the name Ickles is that the area was named after the Roman Rykenield Way or Street which passed through here. But then it was spelled
Ikhills in 1416 but if it was named after hills I don't know where they are. One authority contends that it means 'land added to an estate'. A map of 1775 show it as Eccles.
Espondent C Bason has been in touch "I was very interested in the info for the placename 'Ickles' on your Rotherham site. I have got hold of an old Victorian copy of the 'Ravenna geography' which is a list of Roman places in Britain. On the list is a place 'Uxelis' which is north of 'Duriano' Duriano is from 'deer house' later Deer + Danish by (village) Derby. It is logical that as the Roman road ran to Rotherham that Uxelis (I think from Roman Arx 'a small fortress' and lis Cornish 'a court/enclosure') is at Rotherham. The Roman placename would have sounded something like Icksalis. The small fort was at Templeborough but I understand the market attached to it was at Ickles. I hope this info is useful, I certainly found your comment that Ickles was listed as Ikhills but there are no hills as VERY interesting. Thank you for that, Regards."
The Eccles version apparently comes from word for church (Welsh 'eglwys': French 'eglise') but this would not apply here. The closest church was the chapel at Tinsley just down the road.
A hall is first recorded at Ickles in the Thirteenth Century. It was owned by the de Normanvilles and passed by marriage into the Reresby family in 1250. In Tudor Times it was a farming area with a mill (I understand that this was an oil mill). The original timber framed Ickles Hall was demolished in 1587 and a spanking new stone house was built by Thomas Reresby of Thrybergh using stone from the Roman forts. It was enlarged in 1610 by Sir George Reresby. It was used either as the dower property or as a home for one of the younger sons. The west wing collapsed in 1906 and the remainder of the hall was demolished in 1939 by United Steels Ltd.
In the Middle Ages there was a Lady's Well here. This has now disappeared under the steel works. So what was a Lady's Well? My reading reveals that Lady's Wells could be found over most of England in the Middle Ages. They were called by that name as the water was considered particularly efficacious for women's complaints, especially for women trying to conceive. Sometimes they were simply dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
In the late Victorian age there was a hamlet here. Ickles Map c. 1901. In 1901 it consisted of houses on the north side of Sheffield Road, with a corn mill, St Peters Mission Church and School, Ickles House and a Malthouse. South of Sheffield Road there was housing along Fullerton Road. The mission later became the Phoenix Works Hall but everything is now gone. The Post Office lingered for a long time but I feel sure that this too is gone.
All there are at Ickles now are works, works and more works, railway sidings, derelict land oh and Phoenix Golf Course.
Other Pages to Visit
For more information about the area visit onsite at:-
Rotherham Town & Borough >> Feature Articles >> Rotherham Halls & Stately Homes >> Ickles Hall.