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.
Credit: Mr E J Channon