Editing Ickleton (section)

====Valence or Vallance====
By 1162 the hospital at [[Montmorillon]] in Poitou, France held an estate at Ickleton. The steward of William I, Count of Boulogne had granted the land, and the [[Hundred Rolls]] of 1279 recorded that it covered about {{convert|100|acre}} and was tenanted by one Thomas the deacon. In 1300 Montmorillon hospital conveyed the estate to [[Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke]]. In 1305 Thomas relinquished his tenancy, and the Earl granted the estate to a Sir John Wollaston for the rest of the latter's life. When the Earl died in 1324 he left the estate to his granddaughter [[Elizabeth de Comyn]], but it continued to be called the Valence manor. Elizabeth and her husband [[Richard Talbot, 2nd Baron Talbot]] sold the manor in 1332 and it changed hands again in 1333, 1334 and 1344. In 1344 Valence manor was bought jointly by John Illegh, who was rector of [[Icklingham]], Suffolk and Thomas Keningham, a fellow of [[Michaelhouse, Cambridge]]. In 1345 Illegh made over his share of the estate to Michaelhouse.<ref name=VCH/>

In 1546 during the [[English Reformation|Reformation]] Michaelhouse was dissolved by Act of Parliament, along with [[King's Hall, Cambridge]], and the two were merged to form [[Trinity College, Cambridge]]. The Valence manor was granted to the new college, and in 1612 it was expanded to {{convert|307|acre}}. When Ickleton parish was [[Enclosure|inclosed]] in 1814 Trinity College was allotted {{convert|243|acre}}, which was named Vallance Farm. It increased this to {{convert|340|acre}} by 1946, when Vallance Farm was sold.<ref name=VCH/>

There was a Valence [[manor house]] by 1324, and there are subsequent records of it in 1461 and 1508. It may have been the same as the Valence manor house recorded in 1612, 1685 and 1726 on the south side of Mill Lane. It was a substantial house with six rooms on the ground floor and two [[Solar (room)|solars]] upstairs.<ref name=VCH/> The present Vallance farm in Grange Road has a brick farmhouse built in about 1825 for Trinity College's tenant.<ref>{{NHLE |num= 1128060 |desc=Vallance Farmhouse |date=17 December 1986 |accessdate=1 September 2013}}</ref>

[[File:"Hovells" on Frogge Street - geograph.org.uk - 797226.jpg|thumb|The Hovells, a 16th-century former [[manor house]] that was the seat of one of Ickleton's lesser estates]]