AN HISTORIC ice factory and its 80-year-old refrigeration equipment have become the subject of a preservation battle.
English Heritage is fighting to save the former Grimsby Ice Company building in Grimsby Docks amidst demands to redevelop the site.

Although the Grimsby Ice company building now stands derelict, it was once the largest ice factory in the world and for 90 years was a vital cog in producing ice for the Grimsby fishing industry.

The massed bank of condensers on the roof of the ice factory during its heyday. Pic: NE Lincolnshire Council Library Service

Grade ll listed, the building is on English Heritage's At Risk register. Recognising that the factory is at 'immediate risk of further rapid deterioration', English Heritage is keen to save the building but, more importantly, it is keen to preserve what it recognises as the last surviving example of early 20th century refrigeration equipment. This includes five massive J&E Hall four-cylinder compressors, now lying silent and rusting, still in place in the decaying plant rooms.

Speaking to ACR News, Giles Proctor, English Heritage's South and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire architect, said: 'Our primary concern is for the building to be retained with a significant proportion of the ice-making machinery still in place.' He confirmed that the building was Grade ll listed principally because of the rarity of the refrigeration equipment.
The compressor plant room in its heyday showing three of the four J&E Hall compressors and their electric motors. Pic: NE Lincolnshire Council Library Service

History
The Grimsby Ice Company was originally founded in 1863 by local fishing smack owners to import ice from Norway. A peak was reached in 1900 with the importation of 86,685 tons of ice, but the supply was unreliable, and prices rose with growing demand.

Against this background, the ice factory was opened on October 9 1901 as a joint initiative between the Grimsby Ice Company and the Grimsby Co-operative Ice Company.

In its heyday, the Grimsby ice factory produced around 1,250 tons of ice per day, and helped establish Grimsby as the largest fishing port in the world by the 1950s.

The building originally housed four Pontifex horizontal double-acting ammonia compressors and four ice tanks.

This system was capable of producing 300 tons of ice per day but in order to keep pace with increasing demand an extension was added in 1907. This increased output to 500 tons per day thanks to the addition of a further two ice tanks served by two Linde double-acting ammonia compressors. These were driven by vertical steam engines. None of these original compressors have survived.

Electrification
Subsequent increases to the speed of the compressors and the addition of a further ice tank pushed output to 720 tons per day by 1926.

But even this was not enough. By the 1930s the Grimsby fishing fleet comprised 600 trawlers, all demanding supplies of ice for sorties to the fishing grounds in the North Sea and off the west coast of Greenland. Each boat required about 15 tons of ice when going to fish in the North Sea and four times as much when fishing in Icelandic waters.

Faced with this increasing demand, the Grimsby Ice Company took the decision to scrap the steam plant and replace the original compressors with the latest electrically-driven technology.

As one of the great refrigeration companies of all time, it is perhaps no surprise that the contract was subsequently placed with J&E Hall. In 1931, however, with Britain in the depths of the Great Depression, the announcement of the deal by Hall's managing director Lord Dudley Gordon gave a welcome boost to the company's fortunes and is reported to have been greeted with wild cheering amongst the workforce in Dartford.

Largest in the world
The installation at the time was the largest of its kind anywhere in the world.

Central to the contract was the supply and installation of four huge four-cylinder ammonia compressors. These 16.5in dia, 15in stroke machines were designed to run at 250rpm, each powered by 600hp, 6,000V motors supplied by the Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Company of Manchester.

As is common today, the new equipment was expected to be installed without distribution to the output of ice - and this in a factory which operated 24-hours a day.

Two oil separators were also installed, as was an electrical control system which incorporated automatic start, stop, and safety devices.

In addition to earlier Pontifex condensers, a new array of condensers had been added to the roof. This huge array consisted of 12in bore Staffordshire iron pipes in 34 stacks, 54 pipes high - a total run of 44,200ft, or well over eight miles.

On Wednesday, December 16, 1931, the Grimsby Daily Telegraph ran the headline 'Mammoth Ice Factory Inaugurated', noting that the modernised factory 'will be capable of producing 1,100tons of ice per day - by far the largest output of any ice factory in the world.'

Initial run-tests were carried out on just one compressor but these were not without their problems. When electricity was first applied the compressor ran backwards and the engineers from Metropolitan Vickers were called in to reverse the electrical connections. It then ran successfully for a few hours before a knocking noise was heard. The compressor was shut down and investigations found a seized gudgeon pin in the no3 piston. A new piston, gudgeon, connecting rod and bottom end bearings were delivered by road from the works in Dartford and was back up and running within 24 hours.

Operation
The shell and tube heat exchanger on the roof removed superheat from the gas. This recovered heat was then used to release the ice from the moulds.

After leaving the heat exchanger, the ammonia refrigerant passed through two oil separators and two sets of atmospheric condensers cooled by circulated dock water.

Water was taken from local boreholes and frozen in moulds in the ice tanks. The evaporator coils were arranged in trunks along the side of each tank. In 1930 there were six tanks with the capacity to produce 6,606 2cwt (102kg) blocks and 3,240 2.5cwt (128kg) blocks. The blocks of ice were then turned into crushed ice and conveyed to the quay side and the waiting trawlers.

A further compressor room was added in the early 1950s. This contained one compressor - another four-cylinder J&E Hall model - which also survives, but about which little is known. It was at this time that a further well was sunk on the site and a seventh ice tank added.

Demise
With the eventual demise of the Grimsby fishing industry, the factory finally closed in 1990. Since then its future has been the subject of much local discussion.

But while the preservationists and developers haggle, the site continues to deteriorate. Subjected to a large amount of vandalism, much of the brass in the plant has been removed and the copper stripped from the compressor motors.

Local opinion is very much divided on whether the historic building should be preserved. Grimsby MP Austin Mitchell is reported by the Grimsby Telegraph as having said that restoring the factory was not a 'realistic proposition'. His counterpart in Cleethorpes, however, MP Shona McIsaac, has said that redevelopment was not a fanciful notion and that it would be a 'very big loss to the area' if it was not preserved.

Having already rejected a resolution to apply to de-list the building and have it demolished, the local council has said it would be in favour of saving the factory but was awaiting the results of a feasibility study due to be completed early next year.

Bruce Badger, president of the International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration (IIAR) said: 'The Grimsby Ice Company Factory should be preserved because it provides vivid evidence of the progress of our industry.'


The ice factory did briefly spring back to life in 2007 when it was used as one of the locations for the film Atonement. Starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, the film included interior and exterior shots of the ice factory to represent a war-damaged French town

(This article originally appeared in ACR News magazine, November 2009)