Gibside Estate, Ice House

HER Number:
5126

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Gibside Estate, Ice House

Place:
Gibside

Map Sheet:
NZ15NE

Class:
Domestic

Site Type: Broad:
Garden Building

Site Type: Specific:
Icehouse

General Period:
Post Medieval

Specific Period:
C18

Form of Evidence:
Structure

Description:
It was probably the second Mrs. Bowes wish that the ice house was built. In July 1747 William Cranston was sent from Ravensworth Castle with some ice. Some months later a letter arrived from Mr. Jones, gardener at Ravensworth Castle, requesting two pails of ice for his master. This may have hastened the building of the ice house. In 1748 Thomas Hope was paid for building up the arch at the ice house and John Maughan for sawing joists. In November of that year Thomas Hopes was building the ice house porch. The building was thatched. The bottom part was of an inverted beehive construction made of brick, 18 feet deep and 25 feet across. The top of the structure was a brick groin vault of concentric rings with cross arches on either side of the entrance. Bowes never again had to ask Ravensworth Castle for ice or fresh fruit. A stone entrance gives access to the hemispherical chamber of this late 18th century icehouse. LISTED GRADE 2

Easting:
1748

Northing:
5871

Grid Reference:
NZ17485871

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 5126 >> M Wills, 1995, Gibside and the Bowes family, p 42 I. Ayris & S.M. Linsley, 1994, A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Tyne and Wear, p 62