AS LEDBURY endures another big wintry freeze, residents can look forward to warmer days and the opening of a new ice cream parlour this April, in one of the town's most iconic buildings.

The famous House on Stilts will be the ice cream parlour for the artisanal ice cream maker, Just Rachel.

Just Rachel have been making luxury dairy ice cream for 30 years in their dairy at Bromsberrow near Ledbury to traditional Victorian recipes, from local ingredients wherever possible, "and with absolutely no additives".

The business has won numerous Great Taste awards in recent years.

The House on Stilts at the Top Cross junction dates back to at least the early part of the seventeenth century and gets its name from the wooden pillars which support it, on the New Street side.

The building has been the eye-catching location for a number of businesses in recent years, including a bridal shop and an antiques shop.

Further back, its ground floor may once have been used as a market area, and there is some evidence, following a recent restoration, that it may have been a cobbler's shop or even military factory, making saddles and boots, at the time of the English Civil War.