Background
A new film about Newlyn’s imposing Former Ice Works has been made for Newlyn FISH Trust by Barbara Santi of Awen Productions. This fascinating short film highlights the historical importance of the ice works and the results of recent professional studies of the building and its machinery, alongside interviews with local people, including two of its former employees.
The film is part of an initial phase of Project Development aimed at moving the Trust closer to acquiring and converting the Former Ice Works into a fishing heritage centre, with uses for the rest of the building designed to generate sufficient funds for its long-term maintenance.
Project Development (Phase 1)
Between April 2023 and March 2024, grants from the Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) and Penzance Town Council enabled Newlyn FISH Trust to purchase expertise in order to: grow the Trust’s capacity as an organisation and the ‘strategic fit’ and ‘stakeholder engagement’ of its ambitious project; review the options for acquiring the building and refine the project proposal; further understand the significance and condition of the ice works; and to start assessing the collection of historic fishing-related artefacts & images for telling Newlyn’s story.
Key outputs from the specialists commissioned during this project development phase were as follows.
- Greenwood Projects Ltd – acquisition advice and project development recommendations, revised project budget, redrafted National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) Expression of Interest.
- Sara Hilton Associates – Newlyn FISH Trust stakeholder quadrant & engagement spreadsheet; Trustee skills analysis, recruitment advert and prospectus (resulting in appointment of four new Trustees).
- Dorothea Restorations – preliminary report on the Former Ice Works machinery, including a detailed Statement of Significance.
- Tom Skipp (Photo Journalist) – photographs of exterior and interior of Former Ice Works, including surviving machinery; photographs of the Billy Stevenson Collection of historic artefacts & images.
- Integral Engineering Design – updated Initial Structural Condition Report of the Former Ice Works.
- Target Geo Ltd – measured building survey of the Former Ice Works (floor & roof plans, external elevations & cross-sections through the building).
- Awen Productions – short promotional film to raise awareness & community engagement
Ice works machinery of international significance
A key result of this project development phase was that the preliminary assessment of the ice works machinery carried out by Geoff Wallis of Dorothea Restorations found it to be of international significance. His conclusions, illustrated by photographs taken by Tom Skipp, are summarised below.
In 1907-8 Richard R Bath installed ice-moulding equipment that cast large blocks which were crushed into ‘nub’ ice. He continued to run the plant until local fishing-fleet operators William Stevenson & Sons bought the Ice Works in 1974. In the following two years proprietor William (Billy) Stevenson installed flake-ice making machinery and continued to make further improvements, operating most of the equipment until closure of the Works in 2005-6.
Most of the equipment survives, providing evidence of local entrepreneurialism over seven decades, which has kept Newlyn at the forefront of Cornwall’s fishing industry, and connection to the long-established firm of W. Stevenson and Sons, who are still represented in the industry.
The earliest equipment within the ice works was supplied by The Linde British Refrigeration Company, established in 1886 by the famous scientist, professor, engineer and industrialist Carl Von Linde. Linde led research into refrigeration and developed innovative, practical ice-making plant in the late Victorian era, and his inventions were adopted world-wide. It appears that the first compressor at Newlyn Ice Works, which is still extant, was of Linde’s early design.
Together with the later equipment, it provides comprehensive evidence of nearly a century of great technological change in industrial refrigeration. This is believed to be unique in the UK, so is historically important, with international significance.
The former Ice Works is located centrally in the town, is at the heart of its heritage, and has connections with many local families. The machinery offers great potential for research and interpretation, and to inform and engage the interest of local people and visitors, benefitting the area’s economy.
Watch & share the film
The aim of the film is to raise the profile of the Former Ice Works and the Trust’s ambitions for it (with funders, decision-makers and other strategic partners) and to encourage on-going community support and engagement. Please share it with anyone else who might be interest.
Watch the film by clicking on the image below.
