The Ice House

An acoustic exploration of our late eighteenth century Grade II listed ice house, built to serve the kitchens of Moseley Hall in an era before the invention of the refrigerator.

The tile features field recorded sounds based on workshops with pupils from Park Hill Primary School, and an interview with Moseley Society member Verity Montague-Smith, where she recounts spinning wool outside the ice house on a Park open day.

 

Jellies, blancmange and bombes

an order called across a flagstone floor
bids tired feet to traipse midsummer meadows
and gather ice
sawn from the solid pool in the depths of winter

murky slabs hauled over frozen earth
bedded down between straw sheets
in an underground igloo

the ice house
rendered obsolete by the tide of industrialisation
that dissects the Taylor estate
and melts glaciers

a domed chasm at the heart of the park
rediscovered and reclaimed

hobbit hole
recording studio
repository of secrets
shrine
a global warning