Ice Well

The Ice Well is an icehouse built around 1850, located off Shire Lane in the High Elms Estate. It features a cambered brick entrance that is cemented over and visible above ground. Inside, there is a curved brick passageway leading to a large flask-shaped main chamber. At the top of the chamber, there is a small access point, and at the base, a drain for melt water. A later rectangular chamber was added off the passageway for food storage. The icehouse was designed to maintain a consistently low temperature throughout the year, with a gated entrance surrounded by yew trees to help extract warmer air. The main chamber could store approximately 2 tons, or 1,000 cubic feet, of ice. While it is unclear where the ice originated, there are several nearby lakes, and during the second half of the 19th century, there was a trade in ice from the Baltic, which could have been delivered in cartloads of 2-cubic-foot blocks and stored in layers with straw or hessian in between. This icehouse is an exceptionally large and complete example of its kind.