Building record 0527400000 - ICE HOUSE, WYCOMBE ABBEY GROUNDS

Summary

18th century ice-house in Wycombe Abbey grounds, used as an air-raid shelter in the Second World War.

Protected Status/Designation

  • Listed Building (II) 1387291: ICE HOUSE AT WYCOMBE ABBEY

Map

Type and Period (2)

  • ICEHOUSE (18th Century - 1700 AD to 1799 AD)
  • AIR RAID SHELTER (Modern - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)

Description

Dimensions - Length 0600 cm Height 0250
Plan Form - CIRCULAR
ARTIFICIAL CAVE FILLED IN WINTER WITH ICE. FEATURE INTRODUCED BY CAPABILITY BROWN. AIR RAID SHELTER DURING WAR (B1).
CURVED, FLINT-FACED FACADE WITH GOTHIC ARCH AS ENTRANCE. ENTRANCE BRICKED UP. SHAPE OF MOUND SUGGESTS CIRCULAR PLAN. PARTLY LANDSCAPED INTO HILL (B2).
Documentary references to work carried out on icehouse in 1760 (B3).
Grade II. Ice house with screen wall. Ice house probably 1764 by Capability Brown for the Earl of Shelburne; screen wall probably c1804 by James Wyatt for Lord Carrington. Earth-covered brick-built ice house with screen wall of flint with Denner Hill stone centrepiece. Central four-centre-arched entrance, bricked up and covered by board door of c1985; archway and flanking piers of stone with galleted joints, the piers having chamfered plinths and capstones; flint parapet over door with chamfered stone off-set and coping. Flanking walls, slightly curved, have shallow, pointed-arched niches and end-piers with pyramidal finials, all in flint, right-hand pier missing upper part. The ice house is said to have a brick-lined tunnel leading to a chamber with a domed vault, the pit filled in with chalk. A mid-C18 ice house with an unusual and attractive early-C19 screen wall. Source: K A Walpole, From one generation to another (Cox & Wyman), p.4. Sylvia P Beaumont & Susan Poaf, The ice-houses of Britain, 1990, p.211 -212 (B4).

Sources (4)

  • <1>SBC16402 Bibliographic reference: WALPOLE K A 1967 FROM ONE GENERATION TO ANOTHER- A PANORAMA OF WYCOMBE ABBEY,BUCKS P4.
  • <2>SBC11998 Verbal communication: Andrew Pike (BCM). 1983. PERS COMM FOLLOWING FIELD VISIT, AUG 1983.
  • <3>SBC19712 Unpublished document: Land Use Consultants. 2002. Wycombe Abbey School: Historical landscape assessment.
  • <4>SBC3604 Bibliographic reference: DoE. 1973. LIST OF BUILDINGS OF SPECIAL ARCHITECTURAL OR HISTORIC INTEREST: BUCKINGHAMSHIRE: WYCOMBE DISTRICT: BOROUGH OF HIGH WYCOMBE. Added 25th May 1999.

Location

Grid reference SU 86551 92356 (point)
Civil Parish HIGH WYCOMBE, Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

Finds (0)

Related Monuments/Buildings (1)

Related Events/Activities (1)

  • Event - Survey: (EBC17664)

Record last edited

Mar 27 2023 4:11PM

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