Building record 2274/2/1 - Ice house in Marbury Country Park

There is an Ice House near Budworth Mere in Marbury Country Park. Only the bottom hemispherical half of the chamber remains with protective fencing around it. The now demolished Marbury Hall is close by. 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.