Manchester Patent Ice Co

1876 'THE MANCHESTER PATENT ICE COMPANY'S WORKS.
The new works of the Manchester Patent Ice Company in Smithfield Market, Shudehill, were formally opened this morning in the presence of several members of the Corporation and others who had been invited to witness the proceedings. The process by which the ice is made into large blocks, of unusual transparency, is not in itself original, but Messrs Siddeley and Mackay are the inventors and patentees of the improved machinery and appliances now in use at the company's works. By means of these appliances thirty tons of ice per day can be produced at the works. Each block is 12 inches thick and weighs six cwt. The water used for the process is supplied by the Corporation. The works have been elaborately constructed, and promise to supply what has long been wanted, viz., abundance of pure ice at all times of the year. In the afternoon the directors entertained a large company at luncheon in the Albion Hotel, Piccadilly, Mr. T. Muirhead (the chairman of the board) presiding. Mr. Ashton (the chairman of the Markets' Committee), in proposing the toast of the "Manchester Patent Ice Company, Limited," remarked that the cost of the carriage of ice from abroad amounted to as much as the entire cost at which the ice which would be now sold in Manchester. The chairman, in responding, said that tha ice produced by the company was the purest that he had ever seen, and he rejoiced in the fact the public would have an abundant supply, as they could now have ice at their doors just as they had milk in the mornings. These are the largest ice works that had been built in this county, and success was a matter of certainty.— Mr. Estcourt, the public analyst, remarked that the water used in the manufacture of the ice was remarkable for its purity, and he described the ice as pure water crystallised.— Other toasts were proposed, including these of the patentees (Messrs. Siddeley and Mackay), and the Corporation of Manchester.'

1884 Advertising ice for sale at their stores, Upper High Street, Smithfield, Manchester

1901 Advert: 'REAL PROPERTY MARKET. PARTICULARS AND RESULTS OF SALES. ..... A freehold plot containing 1,199 square yards, having frontages to Minshull-street and Whitworth-street, together with the warehouses and buildings thereon (172 square yards forming part of the branch canal), free from chief rent. The premises are leased to the Manchester Patent Ice Company for a term of years at an annual rent of £250, and renewable for a further term at the option of the lessees at increased rent of £100 per annum. Withdrawn at £9,000.'

Location and Environs of Ice Works

Although the address is given as Smithfield (handy for the meat and fish markets), the company had an ice factory at the southern end of Minshull Street, at its junction with Whitworth Street. On its west side was the end of a branch of the Rochdale Canal.

Goad's Plans for Manchester, No. 48 (1893), show the ice works in a building 100 ft square, attached to a row of similar buildings. Those were occupied, from north to south, by Ralph Seddons and Sons (salt warehouses), W. Singleton Birch and Sons (mineral warehouse), and Thompson, McKay and Sons (cotton warehouse). North of those buildings was the Minshull Street Yard of the Manchester Ship Canal Co. The area occupied by this yard and by Seddons' warehouse is shown on the 1849 O.S. map as being occupied St. George's Foundry (of Richard Ormerod and Sons). Attached to the west side of the ice works was a corrugated iron building identified as 'The Iron Shed (transhipment), cotton and resin', straddling the canal basin.

On the opposite side of the canal basin were various warehouses, accessed from Chorlton Street. The 1849 O.S. map shows the following arrangement, starting at the N.W. end: Rochdale Canal Lock No. 86; Back Canal Street; a block of 26 back-to-back houses; Little David Street; the Grocer's Company's Store Coal Wharf with a variety of buildings including a salt store; then follows a unusual arrangement - a yard with a smithy on one side, and in the yard two rows of columns supporting travelling crane rails which crossed over the canal basin and into St. George's Foundry. Adshead's 1851 map shows that this yard and the surrounding buildings were part of the foundry. The south western end of the land in this plot is shown as mostly empty, and identified as the 'Banktop or Bridgewater Trust Coal Wharf'.

Goad's 1893 plan shows changes on the noth western end of the plot compared with the 1849 map. Two houses over the Rochdale canal survived (Nos.41 & 43 Chorlton St.), but the 26 back-to-back houses had been replaced by the 5-storey shipping warehouse of Ashton & Co. (No. 45). Then there was a 3-4-storey warehouse of the Manchester Ship Canal Co. (No. 47), with access through a large central archway. These buildings can be seen in this 1944 photo looking north up Chorlton Street. Remarkably (given modern developments which are rapidly robbing Manchester of its character), the warehouses have survived (2018). Google Maps image here.

This block of land containing the above premises was bounded on the south west side by Chorlton Street. On the other side of Chorlton Street was the works of Joseph Whitworth and Co.

1920 photograph here shows the Patent Ice Works, looking north from Whitworth Street.

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