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Ice house at Towneley Hall is a nineteenth-century structure built to preserve ice and frozen foods prior to the advent of mechanical refrigeration. Located within the grounds of Towneley Hall near Burnley, Lancashire, the ice house exemplifies the domestic provision systems employed by wealthy households during the Victorian era. Such structures were typically built partially underground or within shaded locations to maintain low temperatures year-round, relying on ice harvested from nearby ponds or water features during winter months. The ice house at Towneley Hall reflects the estate's status and the technological solutions available to its owners before modern cooling methods became commonplace.
Ice house at Towneley Hall is a scheduled monument protected by Historic England under reference 1005089. View the official record →
Ice house at Towneley Hall is a nineteenth-century structure built to preserve ice and frozen foods prior to the advent of mechanical refrigeration. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic England (NHLE) under reference 1005089.
Ice house at Towneley Hall is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic England (NHLE) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in England. The official designation reference is 1005089.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Warren at Everage Clough 450m north east of New Copy Farm (1 km), Oakmount Mill engine and engine house, Wiseman Street (2.4 km), Ring cairn on Slipper Hill (3.7 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Ice house at Towneley Hall's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Ice house at Towneley Hall stands on Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation And South Wales Lower Coal Measures Formation (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Westphalian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete.