This
is the entrance to the Ice House and at the moment as you can see it is covered
in undergrowth. Although when it was used the building would have been covered
in more earth on top to insulate it. There are walls either side leading up
to the entrance. the Ice House was primarily a refrigated storehouse for the
provision of 'Summer ice' at the dinner table. The Winter-house, then even
in the hight of summer was always preserved, 'as cold as an Ice-house'.
This
is where they stored the ice in the darken section of the photograph. This
is actually like a large circular well, about 8feet in diameter and about
15 feet deep. The way it was store would have been as follows: During the
winter they would bring up large blocks of ice from the nearby pond, put it
down outside and then pound it to the size of grains of sand. Next they shovelled
it into the ice well where a man with a rammer would beat it to pack the ice
tightly, occasionally sprinkling the ice with a little water to consolidate
it. When this water is impregnated with salt and poured on the ice in such
quanties as to saturate it completely, the ice will become as firm as a rock
and keep three times longer than using ordinary water.
