Frozen in time... Ice Factory’s cold blast from past

But his film of Grimsby Ice Factory in its dying days in 1990 is now exciting interest at a time when plans are afoot for an ambitious restoration of the massive building.

Mr Bullock, an amateur filmmaker from Humberston, spent days filming men at work, going from compressor house to tank room, cooperage to garage.

His shots took in Grimsby’s last cooper winding down to retirement and people sliding huge blocks of ice about by pick-axe.

The film was edited to 15 minutes and entered into a short film competition run by the Cleethorpes Camera Club.

Now, 22 years later, Mr Bullock has taken the original, previously unseen footage and turned it into a fascinating 45-minute documentary, which shows how fresh water, drawn directly from the aquifer below, was turned into a regular supply of ice for trawlers and fish merchants.

At its peak, the Ice Factory produced 1,100 tons of ice each day and contributed to making Grimsby the busiest fishing port in the world.

The factory, which dates back to 1901, is a Grade II* listed building and, along with the historic dock area surrounding it, has been described by English Heritage as “the most important representation of the industrial scale fishing trade in England”.

But after suffering from years of decay, theft and vandalism it was placed on the Heritage at Risk register.

After the factory closed, several unsuccessful attempts have been made to get projects off the ground.

But headway has been made by The Great Grimsby Ice Factory Trust (GGIFT), set up two years ago, which has raised £18,600 for an options appraisal which will recommend the best way to bring the building back to life, when consultants report back later this year. Copies from the sale of the DVD are going to support the activities of the trust.

Mr Bullock said: “It was in the last month of production when we had a conducted tour. There were still a few trawlers on the go and they were using ice on the fish quays. It was like stepping into the past with the old 16in by 3in white tiles in the compressor room and all the pieces of equipment quite bright and shiny and polished up.

“They were on the last run; they employed the last cooper in Grimsby. The most impressive bit was seeing the 300-weight blocks of ice shoot out from the moulds onto the floor.

“It was just a case of recording it for future reference – I didn’t realise how much interest there was in this one building.”

Vicky Hartung, chairwoman of GGIFT, said: “Ideally it would be marvellous if the film could be seen in the ice factory as part of a heritage exhibition. We are very grateful to Martyn for putting it together and giving it to us, and we hope to sell a few copies to recoup our expenses with the day-to-day running of the trust.”

The factory site is owned by Associated British Ports which has agreed to begin negotiations over the potential transfer of ownership if GGIFT can provide viable plans to transform the building and has funding in place.

Ms Hartung added: “We will get a lot closer to knowing what the eventual figure will be when the options appraisal is completed.

“A structural inspection was made a couple of years ago, which said the building was basically sound, but needed a lot of work to bring it back where it should be – the estimate for urgent works at the time was as much as £1.5m.

“Our idea from the beginning has been to find a mixed use, so we don’t put all our eggs in one basket and identify a use for it that will bring people from outside the region.”

A cinema owner and a micro brewer are interested about moving in to a building that she thinks would also make a perfect location for a world-class art gallery, on the lines of the Baltic art gallery in Newcastle.

“It’s not all pie in the sky,” she said. “There has been scepticism because there hasn’t been much investment in Grimsby in decades.

“Some people think to demolish it would clear up an eyesore, but it is a protected building. Gerald Parkes has a Parkway cinema in Cleethorpes and he is interested in having two screens at the ice factory, which will show alternative programming. The brewer is Tom Wood, who has been brewing for 20 years and has always been interested in that location.

“We are on a steep learning curve but we have been supported every step of the way by one of Prince Charles’s trusts, the Prince’s Regeneration Trust, which is tremendous for us.”