Staying Cool Regency Style

Do you ever wonder how things were kept cold in the past? I mean, they didn't exactly have refrigerators or even iceboxes 200 years ago, so how did they keep milk, cheese, butter, meat, and other perishables from going bad? Or, as a British friend of mine said, going off.

For one thing, England was much cooler during the Regency Era than it is now due to the existence of what some call a mini ice age. Still, they had inventive ways of keeping perishables cool, even cold.

If one lived in the country, an estate was self-sufficient, with buildings for just about everything. The dairy would be located in a wooded area (to keep the building shaded) and near a stream, so water could be fed through the building to keep it cool.

An ice house would likewise be located on the property, usually dug into the side of a hill and filled by cutting ice from a nearby lake during the winter The ice house pictured to the right is located in Norton Priory, near Runcorn, Cheshire, England, probably dating from the 18th century. It was build of brick under an earth mound.




Here is a picture of large blocks of ice being cut from a lake to be shipped to London.




While in town, one way to deal with is was to buy fresh every day. Vendors or from various food purveyers (butcher, dairymaid, etc, etc) delivered to the wealthy every day, so it wasn't necessary to store much in the house itself. Even stuff sent from a country estate arrived at regular intervals. Inside a house was a cold larder. It was a type of cellar, lined with bricks, fairly deep underground which stayed quite cold. They also had ice houses located near the main house even in the city.

Here is a picture of a game larder with the game hanging up. I was surprised to find a window in this picture as I would have thought it would be a way for cold to escape. Maybe it's a northern-facing window.

Anyway, it's fun to see how they dealt with issues such as keeping perishables cold without all our modern conveniences. Still, I'm glad all I have to do is go to my refrigerator in my kitchen the next time I get hungry for a bowl of ice cream. Although, it would be fun if I could ring a bell and have a servant bring it to me in a crystal bowl ;-) But then, that's why my Regency Romance novels have characters who are rich enough for such luxuries.