This is a new series of photographic blogs called Secret Ironbridge, featuring photographs and descriptions of areas of the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire that, although not exactly ‘secret’, are certainly overlooked by the tourism industry that now dominates the four towns and villages that lie in the valley:
- Ironbridge
- Coalbrookdale
- Jackfield
- Coalport
This blog series is a good excuse for me to get out, take photographs, and share some history of an area I have lived in all my life.
This first post features an ice house – the underground cellar from the long-demolished Madeley Wood Hall in the Lloyds Coppice, between Coalport and Ironbridge.
An ice house was used for storing ice throughout the year before the invention of the electric refrigerator (or indeed, electricity) and was typically located wholly or partly underground to utilise the natural insulation it provided. During the winter, ice and snow would be taken into the ice house, which would stay frozen for many months, allowing for the storage of perishable foods, cooling drinks and making cold desserts.
Of course, they tended to be associated with larger houses and halls, and this particular one was built for the Anstice family, owners of large areas of land and industry in the area. It was allegedly quite grand, brick-built, 3-storeys high, with a large entrance porch supported by four stone columns. Nearby was a couple of semi-detached houses (also now demolished) and a stable block serving the hall.
Here is a section of an old map from 1927 showing that the hall was quite substantial in size. The ice house is the upper-most outbuilding and was detached from the main hall (sensible, I guess, if it was full of ice). You can also see the semi-detached houses to the left and the landscaped area that used to be the tennis court.
To the upper right is another building that was, presumably, a gatehouse. On the right is the only remaining building – the stable block for the horses (now a beautiful private dwelling). The lack of trees and the grassed area to the front of the hall would have allowed magnificent views down the valley.
If you refer to the above map, you may see the heavily contoured area to the right of the hall. This was the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) line that ran from Coalport (East) station to Wellington. More of that in the next Secret Ironbridge series.
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