Ice by pat40

Photography • Historical • posted on May 28, 2011

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Description

Ice is probably a strange thing to list amongst the aspects of Dartmoor but thanks to a man with foresight it was, for a very short time, a thriving industry on northern Dartmoor. In wintertime the one thing Dartmoor is not short of is ice and if you go back before the days of refrigerators ice was the only way of storing some foods. Many of the large estate houses had their own separate ice houses and many of the farms had their 'potato caves' for cool storage but what about the ordinary people who lived in towns and cities? In September 1874 a Mr. James Henderson approached the Duchy of Cornwall with a view to leasing Sourton hill for the purpose of collecting naturally produced ice throughout the winter months. This particular spot was ideal in so much as the nearby railway station at Bridestowe provided ideal access to both Plymouth and Exeter. Plymouth at this time had a thriving fish market supplying by rail and boat the cities of London, Bath, Manchester and Bristol and it was this industry that used large quantities of ice to preserve the fish during transit. In addition there was the household market in both the Plymouth and Exeter areas. There is allot more info if you would like to Google it.

Comments (12)

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Bossie_Boots

6:50AM | Sat, 28 May 2011

Fantastic capture Pat and a wonderful narrative a good read thanks for sharing i heard that they do mystery tours maybe will try one of these days but when the weather is warmer superb work !!

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rainbows

6:57AM | Sat, 28 May 2011

Very interesting, Dear Pat. I had no idea! Wonderful capture and narrative. Hugs. Di. xx

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neiwil

7:13AM | Sat, 28 May 2011

Very interesting Pat, I knew of the need and use of ice, but did not know of this 'natural' ice industry..thank you, a most illuminating post, and another excellent vista...thank you Pat.

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