Building record 14928/9 - Dorfold Hall, Icehouse

Grade II listed Icehouse in Dorfold Park, to the north-east of Dorfold Hall. Probably late eighteenth century. Built of red brick under an earth mound. 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.