Building record 1920 - Ice House at Mollington Hall

An icehouse built in the late eighteenth century or early nineteenth century to store ice from the adjacent ponds for the use of Mollington Hall (now demolished). For a long time, there were few ways of preserving food other than salting and pickling. From the 17th century, the idea of an Ice house was introduced to large estates. They were structures built to house blocks of ice to prevent them from melting. They were well insulated and partly underground. The ice was obtained from ponds and lakes frozen in the winter months. Sometimes fields were deliberately flooded by farmers to provide extra income.