Image ID: 22027

The Ice House in the grounds of Annesley Hall

Courtesy of Mr E J Channon

Annesley Hall
Annesley
England

Across the A608, to the right of a Public Footpath leading into the trees, is a restored ice house. This used to stand closer to Annesley Hall but was rebuilt in its present location in 1995 to avoid its destruction during widening work to the A608. Ice houses were used in the past for the same reason we have a refrigerator in our kitchen, to keep perishables fresh. The first recorded ice house in Britain was built at Greenwich in 1619. The heyday of building them came in the eighteenth century, when no aristocratic estate was without one, and Annesley was no exception. Ice houses were built underground, as a brick-lined pit 25 to 30 feet deep, usually in the shape of a blunt cone with the point downwards. The pit was covered by a more-or-less ornate domed superstructure with a north-facing entrance passage. During the winter, ice would be cut from the frozen lakes in Annesley Park and packed into the ice house stacked between layers of straw. The insulation of the straw, bricks and earth packed above it would keep the ice frozen. The ice would be used to, for example, keep meat fresh and cool down larders and dairies. It is believed that ice could be preserved in an ice house like this for up to three years. Annesley Hall is an ancient manor house set in a seventeenth century landscape park of around 250ha. The hall is grade II listed, as are other parts of the park, such as the terrace to the south-west of the hall, and the gate-house. Nearby are the ruins of the grade I listed old Annesley church. The hall has associations with the poet Lord Byron through being the home of the sweet-heart of his youth, Mary Annn Chaworth. There used to be, preserved under glass, a signed transcription of the poem 'Hills of Annesley' written by Byron after the marriage of Mary Chaworth in 1805. Mary Chaworth was the heiress of the Annesley estate, and with her marriage to John Musters it passed down their joined line, the Chaworth-Musters, until 1974 when Major Robert Patricius Chaworth-Musters purchased and moved to Felley Priory. Since that time though, the hall has stood empty, its future not yet decided. The Chaworth family had owned the estate since the reign of Henry VI when George Chaworth, third son of Sir Thomas Chaworth, Knight of Wiverton, married Alice de Annesley in circa 1442. The first lord of the Annesley manor to take their name from the estate was Ralph Britto de Annesley, who died sometime between 1156 and 1161. (Note that the hall and grounds are not open to the public, but you can view them from the A611 and by foot from Dog and Bear lane.)

Date: 01/02/1996

Organisation Reference: NCCW001532

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