Monument record MDO8337 - Post medieval Ice house, Bindon Abbey, Wool

A post medieval ice house inserted into an artificial mound is located in the gardens of Bindon Abbey. It consists of a brick barrel vault and was built in the late 18th century. This feature is also visible on Lidar imagery.

A post medieval ice house inserted into an artificial mound is located in the gardens of Bindon Abbey. It consists of a brick barrel vault and was built in the late 18th century. (1-2)

This feature is also visible on Lidar imagery (3). It was digitally plotted during the Wild Purbeck Mapping Project.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1965, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1964, 220 (Serial). SDO64.

‘Bindon Abbey.
The icehouse here is covered by amound of earth about 8ft. high. Thus it is typical of form 2b, the entrance faces due north and there is the remains of one door frame still attached to the passage. The icehouse stands on a small island and is approached over a wooden bridge at the east end of the abbey ruins. The island is surrounded by a moat 18 ft. wide and it is quite likely that it was the source of the ice which was stored.
A number of large trees, together with much undergrowth including bamboo, covers the entire island except the mound. Some of the trees have now fallen and make access to the entrance very difficult. No provision for drainage exists and the floor of the house is made of stone slabs laid on sand. (See secsion on fillings).
Local tradition has connected this structure with many legends. Probably the most widely known of these states that there is an underground passage leading from the Abbey to Woolbridge House and that this is one entrance. Another suggests that the chamber was a chapel and that a large crucifix stood on top of the mound.
This icehouse is rather unique in another way, it is the only one, apart from Charborough Park number I, that the writer can date with any certainty. It was built by Mr. Thomas Weld in 1770.’

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 2, 408 (Monograph). SDO149.

‘(7) . . . Ice-house, in mound surrounded by wet ditches (43), E. of abbey ruins, has a brick barrel vault and is contemporary with the house (Hutchins I, 353; Weld Estate Accounts, in D.C.R.O., first mention filling ice-houses 24 Dec. 1796).’

<3> Environment Agency, 2010, Lidar DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO13148.

Record last edited

Feb 7 2014 3:48PM