Monument record IPS 481 - Excavation, St. Josephs College Icehouse, Ipswich,

2005: previously unrecorded ice-house, presumably associated with Birkfield Lodge, and dated to circa 1800, was confirmed by excavation.

2005:Recent road improvements at the College revealed a subterranean structure believed to be an ice house. A first season of excavation of this feature was undertaken by Year 9 students from the College, Stoke High School and Beacon Hill Special School, funded by a grant from the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). Preliminary excavation revealed a brick-built structure including an entrance shaft, a barrel-vaulted passageway and a domed ice-chamber, covered with a clay capping. The shaft and much of the passage had been backfilled during the 1950s or 60s with refuse derived from the early establishment of Birkfield Lodge as a school. This material was sieved and all artefacts kept as part of S.C.C.A.S. and Waste Management’s Garbology Project (the Archaeology of Rubbish outreach scheme). After making access to the shaft, passageway and chamber secure for young people to enter, small groups started excavating within the chamber itself. A probe driven into the soft deposits underfoot revealed at least 1m of humic silts, probably mainly derived from a modern water run-off pipe that was discharging into the passageway.
Birkfield Lodge dates from 1799 and the ice house is likely to be contemporary or early 19th century in date, when imported ice from Scandinavia and North America became more widely available. Further work is planned for 2006.
Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2005 (S2).

2006: second season of excavation by Jezz Meredith and students from St Joseph's College, Stoke High School and Beacon Hill Special School. A second season of excavation was undertaken in 2006 by students from St Joseph’s College, Stoke High School and Beacon Hill Special School, funded by a grant from the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). This concentrated on removing sludge from the inside of the underground ice chamber, having recently been used as a soakaway from the road. Over 1.5m of deposit was removed from the chamber to reveal the beginnings of a sloping, conical base. The washed in silts contained finds of 20th-century date, with occasional fragments of older building material likely to be associated with the Lodge. These could belong to an above-ground superstructure to the ice house, evidence of footings for which were revealed in 2005. Also emerging from under the wet silts were a bundle of iron rods or rails that might be have been internal to the structure. A final phase of excavation is planned for 2007, when it is hoped to fully reveal the rods, the base of the chamber and the presumed drain in the bottom (S1). Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2006 (S3).

2007: proposed final season - details outstanding..

2005:Recent road improvements at the College revealed a subterranean structure believed to be an ice house. A first season of excavation of this feature was undertaken by Year 9 students from the College, Stoke High School and Beacon Hill Special School, funded by a grant from the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). Preliminary excavation revealed a brick-built structure including an entrance shaft, a barrel-vaulted passageway and a domed ice-chamber, covered with a clay capping. The shaft and much of the passage had been backfilled during the 1950s or 60s with refuse derived from the early establishment of Birkfield Lodge as a school. This material was sieved and all artefacts kept as part of S.C.C.A.S. and Waste Management’s Garbology Project (the Archaeology of Rubbish outreach scheme). After making access to the shaft, passageway and chamber secure for young people to enter, small groups started excavating within the chamber itself. A probe driven into the soft deposits underfoot revealed at least 1m of humic silts, probably mainly derived from a modern water run-off pipe that was discharging into the passageway.
Birkfield Lodge dates from 1799 and the ice house is likely to be contemporary or early 19th century in date, when imported ice from Scandinavia and North America became more widely available. Further work is planned for 2006.
Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2005 (S2).