More information : TQ 390 770 (locality) The Snow Well, recorded during the RCHME Greenwich Park Survey, Sep-1993 to Feb-1994.
Several documentary sources relating to Greenwich Park describe the existence of a feature known as the 'Snow Well' or 'Ice Well', but the exact location of this feature is not known. A 'snow well' would have been used to trap winter snow for later use as a preservative for perishable foodstuffs.
In 1619-20, accounts describe the construction of a snow conserve within the Park. This structure was a brick-lined well, 30 ft (9.23m) deep and 16 ft (4.92m) in diameter, covered by a thatched timber house with a door. A second, smaller conserve was dug in 1621-2 (2).
Later descriptions of the 'snow well' agree that it was a brick-lined shaft about 8m deep. Webster, writing in 1902, states that the lower half was lined with sixteenth century brick and adds that, at 4 ft (1.23m) from the bottom, a small passage, about 4.5 ft (1.38m) high and 30 ins (0.77m) wide, led in the direction of St Mary's Gate near the north-west corner of the park. He also records that the well was situated in an artificial hollow, formerly the site of a whipping post (3).
In 1906, the shaft was explored by a special committee of Greenwich Borough Council, appointed to investigate `the ancient subterranean passages, conduits and caverns within the Borough'. Their report describes the tunnel at the bottom of the shaft as `mostly of brick but partly of stone work', however, further details were omitted, since the shaft lay within the Park and so did not pose a threat to buildings or roads. Although the `Snow Well' is not mentioned by name, the shaft is said to lie `in the depression sometimes called "The Whipping Place" (1a).
The location of the Snow Well is uncertain, although it must have been on the west side of the Park, since Webster records that it is commemorated by Snow Hill Walk (4). Land Use Consultants argued that the hollow was to be equated with the gravel pit by the Conduit House (5, see TQ 37 NE 95), but Webster states that it was `about midway between the Observatory and Crooms Hill and hard by the road which intersects the ancient burial ground' [ie the barrow cemetery] (3). This description makes it more likely that the hollow was another gravel pit, TQ 37 NE 96a.
In 1894, however, a letter arguing the case for improvements to the Park mentioned that `the splendid Terrace Walk round the Observatory ...requires the entrance from the Clock on the east side made 10 ft wide...and continued down to the west side beyond the Ice Well' (1b). This reference would seem to suggest that the Snow Well should be located on Observatory Hill and not, as Webster argues, on Crooms Hill. The OS map marks a `ruin' immediately south-west of the Observatory, at TQ 3883 7729 (1c).
All the sources seem to suggest that the Snow Well was still extant in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. However, no trace of either this or the Whipping Place was discovered, either in the field or on maps of the Park (1). (1-5)
An ice house of 1619-20 is very early in date and if it survived would be of considerable interest. Its appearance might have resembled the much later circa 1840 ice house at Scotney Castle, Lamberhurst (Grade II) which, unusually (and perhaps comparably), has a conical thatched roof. Unfortunately no trace of this structure was visible above ground in 1994 when the RCHME Greenwich Park Archaeological Survey was undertaken and it does not appear on any maps of the park.
A representative of the National Maritime Museum considers that it was located in the Astronomer’s garden outside Flamsteed House, but agrees that it was filled in a very long time ago and that no trace remains above ground.
The site was assessed in 2008 but was not Scheduled. (6)
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