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The Ice House, Holkham, Norfolk
The Ice House is one of the oldest buildings on the Holkham Hall Estate. Experts have differing opinions on its age ranging from pre-1734 when work began on the Hall to 1750-60.
Much restoration has been undertaken on the building over the years and this has made the dating process more complicated.
In 1776 T W Coke inherited the estate and as the tempo of social life in the house increase, so did the demand for ice. Indeed ice carters were amongst those recorded to have dined in the Servants Hall during the winter months in the early 19th Century.
How an Ice House works:- the timber floor or grid, which covered the drainage sump of the ice well, was first covered with a bed of clean straw or reed. Ice or hard-tamped snow was then laid on the straw to a depth of about a foot. Successive layers of straw or reed and ice or snow followed, up to the level of the entrance door or passage. As the contents were used up, it must have been an unpopular task to go down by ladder into the bitterly cold well to hack out the ice and bring it to the surface. A ring in the dome of this house suggests that some form of hoisting tackle was used in filling and emptying the well.
The Ice House, Holkham, Norfolk
The Ice House is one of the oldest buildings on the Holkham Hall Estate. Experts have differing opinions on its age ranging from pre-1734 when work began on the Hall to 1750-60.
Much restoration has been undertaken on the building over the years and this has made the dating process more complicated.
In 1776 T W Coke inherited the estate and as the tempo of social life in the house increase, so did the demand for ice. Indeed ice carters were amongst those recorded to have dined in the Servants Hall during the winter months in the early 19th Century.
How an Ice House works:- the timber floor or grid, which covered the drainage sump of the ice well, was first covered with a bed of clean straw or reed. Ice or hard-tamped snow was then laid on the straw to a depth of about a foot. Successive layers of straw or reed and ice or snow followed, up to the level of the entrance door or passage. As the contents were used up, it must have been an unpopular task to go down by ladder into the bitterly cold well to hack out the ice and bring it to the surface. A ring in the dome of this house suggests that some form of hoisting tackle was used in filling and emptying the well.