Strong demand exists for an experimental facility enabling new experimental investigations on condensed matter systems based on epithermal neutron scattering at high energy and low momentum transfers. This need will be met by the very low angle detector (VLAD) bank, to be installed on the VESUVIO spectrometer at the ISIS spallation neutron source. The equipment will operate in the scattering angular range 1 degrees < 2 theta < 5 degrees. Scattering measurements from a polycrystalline ice sample using a VLAD prototype demonstrates the effectiveness of the detection technique adopted for the construction of the full detector array. The resulting density of states in ice is 9 +/- 2 atoms/cell, in agreement with previous measurements.