The Ice-houses of Pradelles-Carbardes

Basically, these were developed in the second half of the 19th century, taking advantage of the abundant snowfall of the Montagne noire. Pits were dug out 10 m wide and the same depth. Women removed the earth in baskets on their heads, climbing out by ladders.  The earth spoil was used to build up further height.  It was lined with stone and mortared inside for a smooth finish. There were stone roof arches with chestnut beams, covered with planks and finally stone roof tiles. The ones we saw still had the stone arches and some of the beams.

In the autumn the women collected beech leaves to use as insulation which were stored in a small building.

During the winter the most compacted snow drifts were chosen and the snow put into the pit and compacted down as much as possible. When full, it was all covered with a 1 - 1.5 m layer of beech leaves, and the ice house was closed till the summer.

When ice was needed, the leaves were removed in the early morning and the ice scraped out to be formed into cylinders of 50 kg, sometimes 1 or 1.5 kg, by compacting into moulds. The ice "balls" were then laid on a sack of beech leaves back in the ice house till the evening.

Cylindrical mould

The ice balls were loaded onto carts. One horse would pull a cart of 30 balls, a weight of 1.5 tons, to arrive in town in the early morning. Distribtion went as far as Narbonne, Castres, and Sètes. With the arrival of the railway, places as far as Toulouse, Bordeaux and Perpignan were served.

The decine of this industry was due to

• the development of artificial ice in 1902,
• the first world war, which requisitioned men and horses
• global warming,

such that by the end of the war, only 2 of the original 17 were still operating and they too closed by 1927.