The Ice House

Before the invention of refrigerators, or for that matter, electricity, and you wanted to slip some ice into your glass of gin, where do you keep the ice? An ice house, if you had one. Many large houses had an icehouse tucked away somewhere, to store ice throughout the year. This one is on the Sherborne Park Estate, 4000 acres of farmland, woods and water meadows managed by the National Trust. I suspect it was also a piece of one-upmanship to be able, in the middle of Summer, to offer your guests a dish of ice cream.