Greys Court Ice House
This is a traditional ice house, which is a type of building used to store ice year-round before the advent of modern refrigeration. This particular example is the restored 19th-century ice house at Greys Court in Oxfordshire, England, known for its distinctive thatched roof.
Ice houses were primarily used to preserve food and provide ice for cooling drinks and making desserts, especially in wealthy households and later for commercial purposes. Typically built partially or wholly underground, often with thick, insulated walls and a deep chamber to store ice collected during winter. Ice houses like this one offer a glimpse into historical methods of food preservation and luxury before the widespread availability of refrigerators.
During the winter, ice and snow would be cut from lakes or rivers, taken into the ice house, and packed with insulation (often straw or sawdust). It would remain frozen for many months, often until the following winter, and could be used as a source of ice during the summer months.
During the heyday of the ice trade, a typical commercial ice house would store 2,700 tonnes of ice in a 9-by-30-metre and 14-metre-high building.
Greys Court is a Tudor country house and gardens in the southern Chiltern Hills at Rotherfield Greys, near Henley-on-Thames in the county of Oxfordshire. Now owned by the National Trust, it is open to the public.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_house_(building)
Greys Court Ice House
This is a traditional ice house, which is a type of building used to store ice year-round before the advent of modern refrigeration. This particular example is the restored 19th-century ice house at Greys Court in Oxfordshire, England, known for its distinctive thatched roof.
Ice houses were primarily used to preserve food and provide ice for cooling drinks and making desserts, especially in wealthy households and later for commercial purposes. Typically built partially or wholly underground, often with thick, insulated walls and a deep chamber to store ice collected during winter. Ice houses like this one offer a glimpse into historical methods of food preservation and luxury before the widespread availability of refrigerators.
During the winter, ice and snow would be cut from lakes or rivers, taken into the ice house, and packed with insulation (often straw or sawdust). It would remain frozen for many months, often until the following winter, and could be used as a source of ice during the summer months.
During the heyday of the ice trade, a typical commercial ice house would store 2,700 tonnes of ice in a 9-by-30-metre and 14-metre-high building.
Greys Court is a Tudor country house and gardens in the southern Chiltern Hills at Rotherfield Greys, near Henley-on-Thames in the county of Oxfordshire. Now owned by the National Trust, it is open to the public.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_house_(building)