THE Institute of Refrigeration is urging its members and the industry at large to join in the fight to help save the Grimsby Ice Factory.
The Grimsby Ice Factory, built in 1901, is a sole surviving example of a type of ice making with its equipment still intact. It was once one of the largest ice making plants in the world and still contains its ice making machinery including four huge 80-year-old J&E Hall ammonia compressors.
In becoming the first corporate member of the Grimsby Ice Factory Trust (GGIFT), the Institute is urging others to join the fight. GGIFT is run with the purpose of securing the future of the Grimsby Ice Factory and the surrounding area.
Membership helps to promote the cause of the Trust with large scale funding of the future of the Ice Factory and surrounding area as a heritage site coming from other sources.
Guy Hundy, past president of the IOR, explaining the significance of the Ice Factory buildings, said 'They offer an insight into the heart of the industrial activity in the docks in their heyday. The installation represents the peak of development of large industrial ice making equipment and includes the only known surviving examples of large size J&E Hall ammonia compressors of this type.'
Graeme Bassett, secretary of GGIFT, said 'The Committee of Great Grimsby Ice Factory Trust is grateful to the Institute for demonstrating its support and are proud to welcome the Institute of Refrigeration as its first corporate member.'
The website at
www.grimsbyice.co.uk, has news on the history of the site and the equipment still there. The Trust has already secured an Architectural Appraisal and is shortly to publish a Princes Regeneration Trust report which willl form the basis for a Feasibility Study Brief, the next step towards finding a sustainable new use for the building and refrigeration equipment it contains.
Membership is just £50 - see
www.grimsbyice.co.uk/application.html for details of how you can support their work to preserve the early history of the refrigeration industry.
