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Once the canals were built it was noticed that the Buckingham Arm froze more quickly and solidly than the River Ouse or the main line canal. Skaters came from miles around. In about 1820, the owner of Cosgrove Hall built an ice house halfway between the arm and the hall. This ice house was constructed of stone with very thick walls with the greater part of its interior being under ground level. Every winter until the 1900’s ice was cut from the canal and stored in the ice house packed with straw. It lasted well into spring and summer and was sold to local fishmongers, butchers and others for refrigeration purposes. The ice house is now derelict. It was the last remaining in Buckinghamshire and one of the very few left in England. The Ice House revisited! Sylvia Meads our archivist has come across another version of the story of the Cosgrove Hall Ice House in local historian Sir Frank Markham's book 'The Nineteen Hundreds' first published in 1951 and reprinted 1991 by the Wolverton and District Archaeological Society: "One curious feature about the Buckingham Arm was that it froze more quickly and solidly than either the River Ouse or the main canal. The fact was not only noted by skaters from miles around but also by the owners of Cosgrove Hall who in some date around 1840 built an "ice house" half way between the canal and the Hall. This icehouse was constructed rather like a stone windmill with very thick walls. But whereas the windmill was entirely above ground, the ice house had its greater part below the level of the surrounding fields. Into this ice house every winter from 1820 to the 1900s, ice cut from the canal would be stored, packed around with straw, and by this method it kept until the following spring and summer, when it would be sold to local fishmongers, butchers and others in the days before refrigeration was possible. The building still stands though naturally not in its former condition, and is I think the only ice house now remaining in Buckinghamshire, and one of the very few in England. Not very far from the icehouse was the Jaycock, a short arm of water jutting out from the canal where barges and boats of all kinds could be repaired or repainted." The Unofficial version. While we were on one of our work parties we stopped to talk to a couple of senior walkers who knew the canal as children. Their story is that the ice-house was built for the Canal Company to store ice for the Directors canal boat when they visited the canal.This could explain why the ice-house as built such a long way from Cosgrove Hall.
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