Ice House Baby!

Back to the forgotten garden for today's blip. This is the entrance to the Ice House which is situated between the 18th Century mansion house, the large walled kitchen gardens and stable yard.

Many country houses and mansions had an ice house before the invention of the refridgerator. They were built mostly underground with a north facing entrance, and often with a mound of rock and soil over the roof for extra insulation.
Like this example, they were frequently in woodland to keep out sunlight, although this one is now totally overgrown by huge laurel shrubs.

The door at the botton of the steps is locked as it is in a state of disrepair, but apparently it is typical in having a bowl shaped floor, where melted ice would collect and stone shelving around the vaulted walls.

In the winter ice would have been harvested from the river, or from a specially built pond - here the river is about a 10 minute walk, so labour intensive to bring it up the hill. The ice would have been used throughout the year and to make ice cream. Some ice houses were dual purpose being used to keep meat and other perishable foods as fresh as possible.

Stories of tunnels and secret passages often turn out to be ice houses rather than something more exciting.
I love the contrast with today, all that high life, and no mod cons, no wonder they had so many staff.