Record Details

NHER Number:12463
Type of record:Building
Name:The Icehouse

Summary

An unusual example of a late 17th or early 18th century thatched icehouse. The icehouse has an underground brick chamber with a steeply pitched thatched roof. The entrance has a red brick crowstepped gable and a barrel-vaulted passage.

Images - none

Location

Grid Reference:TF 8818 4266
Map Sheet:TF84SE
Parish:HOLKHAM, NORTH NORFOLK, NORFOLK

Full description

Restored 17th century (and so pre present park layout).
Entrance in brick wall under stepped gable leads to tunnel partly sunken, thatched on top; leading into domed chamber, roof corbelled in; thatched exterior.
Visited by E. Rose (NAU) 30 April 1977.

Informant [1] does not agree with 17th century date; he points to references (as supplied by [2]) to storing ice in grottoes and porches in 1739 which he suggests means there was no icehouse; but it was there by 1744. Indications that passage and outer door are later additions.
Pulley wheel in vault. There is a reference to enlarging the icehouse in 1752.
An extension to the lake was made to enable ice to be more easily collected. Thatched roof had gone by 1943 so present is a restoration.
Photograph in file.
E. Rose (NAU) 10 April 1984.

Monument Types

  • ICEHOUSE (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status

  • Listed Building

Sources and further reading

---Designation: Historic England. National Heritage List for England. List Entry 1373662.
---Monograph: Beamon, S. & Roaf, S.. 1990. The Ice-houses of Britain..
---Record Card: NAU Staff. 1974-1988. Norfolk Archaeological Index Primary Record Card.
---Unpublished Document: Oxford Archaeological Unit. MPP Ice-house Assessment.
---Photograph: ELF 22-3.
---Newspaper Article: Eastern Daily Press. 2009. [Photographs of Holkham Hall during winter]. 22 December.
---Secondary File: Secondary File.
---Photograph: BCD 10.

Related records

1802Part of: Holkham Park (Designed Landscape)

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