Refrigeration highlight at Watch Day

UK: The importance of refrigeration will be an important aspect of a special Watch Day being organised by the group fighting to save the Grimsby Ice Factory. 

Undaunted by a failure to attract financial support from this year’s round of Heritage Lottery funding, the Great Grimsby Ice Factory Trust (GGIFT) is organising a public Watch Day as part of the ice factory’s inclusion on the World Monuments Fund’s 2014 Watch list.

The historic Grimsby Ice Factory, derelict and decaying since finally closing its doors in 1990, still retains its unique, 80-year-old refrigeration equipment. It is this equipment which has ensured its English Heritage Grade ll* listing, and its historic structure which last year brought it to the attention of the international World Monuments Fund.

The World Monument Fund was launched in 1996 to spotlight international attention on cultural heritage at risk around the globe. The Grimsby Ice Factory was one of four UK sites, including Battersea Power Station, included on the Fund’s 2014 Watch list.

Visitors to the Watch Day in Grimsby on September 20 will learn about the importance of refrigeration in people’s daily lives and the part that Grimsby Ice Factory played in developing the technology. This will include illustrated slide lectures on the refrigeration equipment by Chris Lester from the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology and a film of the Ice Factory in its last week of production.

The Watch Day is being held at the Freeman Street Market, Grimsby, on Saturday, September 20 from 10am to 4pm.