ICOMB is a parish and village, 3 miles south-east from Stow-on-the-Wold station on the Banbury and Cheltenham branch of the Great Western railway and 26 east from Gloucester, and is in the Cirencester and Tewkesbury division of the county, hundred of Slaughter, petty sessional division, union and county court district of Stow-on-the-Wold, rural deanery of Stow, archdeaconry of Cheltenham and diocese of Gloucester.

The church of St. Mary is a building of stone, chiefly in the Early English style, and consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and a western tower containing 8 tubular bells: the chancel retains a piscina, and attached to the nave is a south chapel, built in the 15th century as a burial place for the Blaket family, and retaining a piscina: beneath the south window is a recumbent marble effigy of Sir John Blaket knt. said to have fought at the battle of Agincourt, October 25, 1415, representative in Parliament for Leicestershire 1407-10 and 1413-14, and a resident at Icomb Place, who died in the year 1431; in front of the tomb, under Pointed arcades, are several sculptured figures of the Eternal Father and Crucified Son appearing in conventional style in the centre: there is also a monument to William Cope esq. and his wife, the Lady Elizabeth Cope (née Fane), circ. 1691, widow of his kinsman, Sir John Cope Bart. of Harwell, Oxon: the interior of the church was thoroughly restored in 1870 under the directions of Mr. Hopkins, architect, of Worcester: the church has since undergone extensive alterations: there are sittings for 140 persons.

The register of baptisms dates from the year 1545; marriages, 1563; burials, 1602. The living is a rectory, net yearly value £200, including 3 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Worcester, and held since 1921 by the Rev. Herbert Percival Morris, of London University. The Rural Institute and Reading Room was built in 1892 by subscriptions. There are charities of £33 yearly, derived from land left in 1691 by William Cope esq. divided between this and the neighbouring parish of Stow-on-the-Wold. Icomb Place, the old manor house, originally built about 1254, and remodelled by Sir John Blaket's father, and afterwards purchased by Col. William, Cope, is now the property and residence of Capt. George H. Simpson-Hayward, by whom it has been restored: a room in the attic storey has a ship painted in distemper on the wall: the grounds are well laid out, and contain a picturesque rock garden with fishponds &c.

The manor of Icomb belongs to the trustees of the late Dr. Hayward, of Stow-on-the-Wold, and that of Church Icomb to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The chief landowners are F.J. Harper and H.T. Hewitt esqrs. The soil is stone brash and clay; subsoil, clay and gravel. The chief crops are wheat, barley and turnips. The area is 1,184 acres, divided into the hamlet of Icomb, with 671 acres, and Church Icomb, formerly in Worcestershire, with 513 acres; these two portions are separately rated - Icomb, assessable value, £422: Church Icomb, assessable value, £407. The population in 1911 was - Icomb hamlet, 38; and Church Icomb, 120.
[Kelly's Directory of Gloucestershire, 1923]