Icehouse (building) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Ice houses were buildings used to store ice

Ice

Ice is water frozen into the solid state. Usually ice is the phase known as ice Ih, which is the most abundant of the varying solid phases on the Earth's surface. It can appear transparent or opaque bluish-white color, depending on the presence of impurities or air inclusions...

throughout the year, prior to the invention of the refrigerator

Refrigerator

A refrigerator is a common household appliance that consists of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump that transfers heat from the inside of the fridge to its external environment so that the inside of the fridge is cooled to a temperature below the ambient temperature of the room...

. Some were underground chambers, usually man-made, close to natural sources of winter ice such as freshwater lakes, but many were buildings with various types of insulation

Insulation

Insulation means:* Building insulation, added to buildings for comfort and energy efficiency* Soundproofing, also known as acoustic insulation, any means of reducing the intensity of sound...

.

During the winter, ice and snow

Snow

Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by...

would be taken into the ice house and packed with insulation, often straw

Straw

Straw is an agricultural by-product, the dry stalks of cereal plants, after the grain and chaff have been removed. Straw makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has many uses, including fuel, livestock bedding and fodder, thatching and...

or sawdust

Sawdust

Sawdust is a by-product of cutting lumber with a saw, composed of fine particles of wood. It can present a hazard in manufacturing industries, especially in terms of its flammability....

. It would remain frozen for many months, often until the following winter, and could be used as a source of ice during summer months. The main application of the ice was the storage of perishable foods, but it could also be used simply to cool drinks, or allow ice-cream and sorbet dessert

Dessert

In cultures around the world, dessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, usually consisting of sweet food. The word comes from the French language as dessert and this from Old French desservir, "to clear the table" and "to serve." Common Western desserts include cakes, biscuits,...

s to be prepared.

History

An inscription from 1700 BC in northwest Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

records the construction of an icehouse, "which never before had any king built." In China, archaeologists have found remains of ice pits from the seventh century BC, and references suggest they were in use before 1100 BC. Alexander the Great around 300 BC

300 BC

Year 300 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Corvus and Pansa...

stored snow in pits dug for that purpose. In Rome in the third century AD, snow was imported from the mountains, stored in straw-covered pits, and sold from snow shops. The ice formed in the bottom of the pits sold at a higher price than the snow on top.

In the U.K.

Ice was often imported into the UK from Scandinavia up until the 1950s. Usually only large manor houses had purpose-built buildings to store ice. Many examples of ice houses exist in the UK some of which have fallen into disrepair. Good examples of 19th-century ice houses can be found at Ashton Court, Bristol, Albrighton, Bridgnorth, Shropshire, Grendon, Warwickshire

Grendon, Warwickshire

Grendon is a Village and Civil Parish in North Warwickshire it situated three miles west of Atherstone and five miles east of Tamworth.- Old Grendon :...

, and at Christchurch Mansion

Christchurch Mansion

Christchurch Mansion is a substantial Tudor brick mansion house within Christchurch Park on the edge of the town centre of Ipswich, Suffolk, England...

, Ipswich, Suffolk, Moggerhanger Park, Bedfordshire Petworth House

Petworth House

Petworth House in Petworth, West Sussex, England, is a late 17th-century mansion, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s by Anthony Salvin...

, Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

, Danny House

Danny House

Danny is an impressive Grade I listed Elizabethan red brick Mansion near Hurstpierpoint in West Sussex, England. It lies at the northern foot of Wolstonbury Hill and one of the finest stately houses in Sussex, with 56 bedrooms and 28 apartments. The present house was built 1593-95 by George...

, Sussex, Ayscoughfee Hall

Ayscoughfee Hall

Ayscoughfee Hall is a grade II* listed building, located in central Spalding, Lincolnshire, England, and is a landmark on the fen tour.- History :The house, currently a museum, was built for Richard Ailwyn in the fifteenth century...

, Spalding

Spalding, Lincolnshire

Spalding is a market town with a population of 30,000 on the River Welland in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. Little London is a hamlet directly south of Spalding on the B1172 road....

, Rufford Abbey

Rufford Abbey

Rufford Abbey is an estate in Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, England. It was originally a Cistercian abbey. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century it became a country house...

, Eglinton Country Park

Eglinton Country Park

Eglinton Country Park is located in the grounds of the old Eglinton Castle estate, Kilwinning, North Ayrshire, Scotland . Eglinton Park is situated in the parish of Kilwinning, part of the former district of Cunninghame, and covers an area of 400 hectares...

in Scotland, Parlington Hall

Parlington Hall

Parlington Hall was the seat of the Gascoigne family, Aberford near Leeds in the county of Yorkshire, in England. It was the birthplace of Isabella and Elizabeth Oliver Gascoigne, who inherited the Gascoigne family fortune in 1843...

in Yorkshire and Croxteth Hall

Croxteth Hall

Croxteth Hall is the former country estate and ancestral home of the Molyneux family, the Earls of Sefton. After the death of the 7th and last Earl in 1972 the estate passed to Liverpool City Council, which now manages the remainder of the estate, following the sale of approximately half of the...

Liverpool.

The ice house was introduced to Britain around 1660. Various types and designs of ice house exist, however, British ice houses were commonly brick lined, domed structures, with most of their volume underground. Ice houses varied in design depending on the date and builder, but were mainly conical or rounded at the bottom to hold melted ice. They usually had a drain to take away any water. It is recorded that the idea for ice houses was brought to Britain by travellers who had seen similar arrangements in Italy, where peasants collected ice from the mountains and used it to keep food fresh inside caves. Ice Houses may be known as Ice Houses, Ice Wells, Ice Pits and Ice Mounds.

Game larder

Larder

A larder is a cool area for storing food prior to use.Larders were commonplace in houses before the widespread use of the refrigerator.Essential qualities of a larder are that it should be:*as cool as possible*close to food preparation areas...

s and venison larders were sometimes marked on ordnance survey maps as ice houses.

Bruce Walker, an expert on Scottish vernacular

Scottish Vernacular

Scottish Vernacular architecture is a form of vernacular architecture often seen as being rooted in Georgian and Victorian architectural conventions - see Edinburgh and Glasgow. However, the distinctive and unique Scottish features include corbelled Gables and Lime Renders - Culross and Aberlady...

buildings, has suggested that the relatively numerous and usually long ruined ice houses on country estates have led to Scotland's many legends of secret tunnels

Ley tunnel

Ley tunnels are a common element of the local folklore tradition in the United Kingdom and they also occur in Europe. In Norwegian a ley tunnel-like passage is called a "lønngang" and in Swedish a "lönngång"...

. The appearance of ice house entrances lends itself to the uninitiated making such deductions, seeing as how ice houses are found in ha-ha walls, house and stable basements, woodland banks, open fields, etc.

In the U.S.

Ice houses allowed a trade in ice that was a major part of the early economy of the New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

region of the United States, which saw fortunes made by people who shipped ice in straw-packed ships to the southern U.S. and throughout the Caribbean Sea

Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....

. In winter months, ice was chopped from a lake surface and often dragged by sledge to the ice house, and in summer months, was delivered from local ice houses to residences in ice wagons or ice trucks, where it would be stored in an ice box

Ice Box

The Ice Box is a 5,010-seat multi-purpose arena in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was adapted for hockey upon the Lincoln Stars' arrival in 1997. The Ice Box is located at 1800 State Fair Park Drive, on the Nebraska State Fair grounds....

, which was used much like a modern refrigerator

Refrigerator

As home and business refrigeration

Refrigeration

Refrigeration is a process in which work is done to move heat from one location to another. This work is traditionally done by mechanical work, but can also be done by magnetism, laser or other means...

became more common, ice houses disappeared. The home ice delivery business declined, and was virtually gone by the late 1960s. Smaller ice houses, usually no more than a sawdust pile covered by a makeshift roof or tarpaulin

Tarpaulin

A tarpaulin, colloquially tarp, is a large sheet of strong, flexible, water-resistant or waterproof material, often cloth such as canvas or polyester coated with urethane, or made of plastics such as polyethylene. In some places such as Australia, and in military slang, a tarp may be known as a...

, continued to be maintained to store ice for use in local events such as fair

Fair

A fair or fayre is a gathering of people to display or trade produce or other goods, to parade or display animals and often to enjoy associated carnival or funfair entertainment. It is normally of the essence of a fair that it is temporary; some last only an afternoon while others may ten weeks. ...

s. Today, most ice for daily consumption is made in a home freezer

Refrigerator

, while bulk ice is manufactured, distributed and sold like other retail commodities.

The Ice House is a common name for ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

rinks in the U.S.

Texas Ice Houses

In Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, former ice houses are a cultural tradition. Ice merchants diversified to sell groceries and cold beer, serving as early convenience stores and local gathering places. The widespread US 7-Eleven

7-Eleven

7-Eleven is part of an international chain of convenience stores, operating under Seven-Eleven Japan Co. Ltd, which in turn is owned by Seven & I Holdings Co...

convenience store

Convenience store

A convenience store, corner store, corner shop, commonly called a bodega in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, is a small store or shop in a built up area that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, toiletries, alcoholic and soft drinks, and may also offer money order and...

chain developed from ice houses operated by the Southland ice manufacturing company in Dallas and San Antonio in the 1930s, which were first known as Tote'm stores. Today many Texas ice houses have converted into open-air bars. In the region of Central Texas and the Texas Hill Country

Texas Hill Country

The Texas Hill Country is a vernacular term applied to a region of Central Texas featuring tall rugged hills consisting of thin layers of soil atop limestone or granite. It also includes the Llano Uplift and the second largest granite monadnock in the United States, Enchanted Rock, which is located...

in particular, the word "icehouse" has become a colloquialism

Colloquialism

A colloquialism is a word or phrase that is common in everyday, unconstrained conversation rather than in formal speech, academic writing, or paralinguistics. Dictionaries often display colloquial words and phrases with the abbreviation colloq. as an identifier...

for an establishment that derives the majority of its income from the sale of cold beer

Beer

Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...

, especially such locally produced labels as Shiner Bock, Pearl

Pearl Brewing Company

The Pearl Brewing Company was an American brewery, established in 1883 in San Antonio, Texas. In 1985, Pearl's parent company purchased the Pabst Brewing Company and assumed the Pabst name...

, or Lone Star

Lone Star Brewing Company

The Lone Star Brewery, built in 1884, was the first large, mechanized brewery in Texas. Adolphus Busch, of Anheuser-Busch, founded it along with a group of San Antonio businessmen. The castle-like building now houses the San Antonio Museum of Art. Lone Star beer was the company's main brand. It was...

External links

Jamaica Pond Ice Houses and Trade
Map of ice houses along the Kennebec River, 1891, Maine Memory Network

History

In the U.K.

In the U.S.

Texas Ice Houses

See also

External links

Further reading