Victorian Maltings in , 1837 to 1914

Amber Patrick

Introduction journals which give some indication of the date of a building. Generally Victorian The period in question is a long one, malthouses can be identified as belong- more than 75 years. It is hardly surprising ing to the period, although there can be therefore if there were a number of quite difficulties with those built at the begin- substantial changes during that time in ning, however precisely dating later the development of the buildings in which malthouses can be difficult. malt was produced. More than halfway through the period, Stopes in his book Throughout the paper where possible the published in 1885 stated that ‘malting current fate of the maltings is given. was a decaying industry’, yet some of the largest buildings were still to be built. This paper cannot be a complete record of The Buildings either all the maltings of the period, nor can it deal with all the developments over Victorian maltings were constructed that time. However, it will attempt to iden- usually of the material most conveniently tify some of the major changes and available, and this was either brick or developments during the period, and to stone, although weatherboard on a assess the impact of changes, such as timber frame might be used for a part of the repeal of the Malt Tax in 1880, on the the building, for example at Malthouse design and layout of malthouses. Other No 2 at Weymouth (converted) or at features which were developed some- Watton Road, Ware Hertfordshire (part times primarily for other industries but converted). At these malthouses the bar- which were used in malthouses will also ley and malt stores which are at opposite be mentioned. ends of the buildings were timber framed with a weather board exterior. No malt- One of the major problems is identifying houses of this period are known to have the date of buildings, sometimes there been completely timber framed. The use are full records, but often it is a combina- of brick and stone continued throughout tion or map evidence, and entries in trade the whole period. There was however

14 The Journal of the Brewery History Society Figure 1. South block of the mass concrete maltings, Trentside, Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire

one experiment, if it can be called that, most usual roofing material especially with with the use of mass concrete. Two malt- improvements in the transport system . houses were built at Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire on the west bank of the Over such a long period it would be most river and to the north of Trent Bridge [Fig. surprising if malthouses had not increased 1]. Perhaps surprisingly there is apparent- in size. Certainly this was the case with ly no record of their building, despite the malthouses at the end of the period having fact that it must have been a noteworthy eight floors (Free Rodwell's Malthouse No event. They were three storey buildings on 1, Mistley, Essex - converted), but size the Newark pattern.1 Both have now been was not the only development. Although converted. At the beginning of the period the main construction materials were the tile, pantile, or local stone tiles were still same at the beginning of the period as at the usual roofing material, although thatch the end, there were differences. Early may have continued in use on existing Victorian malthouses were usually con- maltings. However, slate was starting to structed with timber main beams support- be widely used and it rapidly became the ed, when the width of the floor required, by

Brewery History Number 123 Summer 2006 15 cast iron columns, usually slender ones, or Another method of fire prevention was the sometimes by timber columns for example use of jack arching. This used a combina- as at the malthouse at Regent Wharf, tion of concrete ceilings arching to steel Loughborough, Leicestershire built in the beams. Examples are often surprisingly late 1830s or early to mid 1840s. Certainly early as at Midford, North Somerset (con- upper floors where the barley and malt verted) where the malthouse has been was stored (separately) often had timber dated to the 1840s.2 An equally effective columns. They were not only necessary method was to use flat ceilings of shut- from a constructional point of view but tered concrete and examples of this helped to form the storage boxes. By the feature were to be found at Lower Bristol end of the period it was more common to Road, Bath (converted) and at the Bridge use steel beams instead of timber ones to Street Maltings in Northampton. support the upper floors. This not only provided greater strength but helped to The epitome of a fire-proofed maltings is fire-proof the building. (Maltings were probably Bass's Sleaford maltings (part notoriously prone to destruction by fire.) re-used and part derelict) [Fig. 2]. In fact,

Figure 2. The Bass Maltings, Sleaford, Lincolnshire.

16 The Journal of the Brewery History Society despite substantial fire damage in the late almost delicate building. Not all architect 1970s when the buildings were no longer designed maltings were so attractive, in use as maltings, they have survived most were plain, even severe, and with relatively little further deterioration. essentially functional, for example the They are constructed of brick but with maltings of 1899 in Merchants Road, cast iron columns, and jack arching. Only Gloucester (unconverted) by J.W. Wood. on the upper floors was timber used. Rather more attractive and aesthetically pleasing examples include Strong's Designed Malthouses Romsey Brewery Maltings (converted) of The Sleaford maltings were designed by 1902 by Arthur Kinder a well-known Bass's engineer Herbert Couchman, but brewery architect [Fig. 3]. Somewhere in it was not uncommon for malthouses to between are Rigden's Brewery maltings be architect or engineer designed and at Faversham, Kent (converted to super- firms specialising in breweries and malt- market) of 1884 by R. Waite of Duffield, houses were in operation by the 1870s Derby, and the Goat Maltings (unconvert- with a few working before then. A surpris- ed but due for conversion) at Burton-on- ingly early example is Malthouse No 2 at Trent by the well-known brewers' archi- Weymouth, designed by local architect, tect, Scamell and Collyer of , built G.R. Crickmay. It is an attractive and in 1883. Then there is Free Rodwell's

Figure 3. Romsey Brewery Maltings, Romsey, Hampshire, designed by Arthur Kinder.

Brewery History Number 123 Summer 2006 17 Figure 4. Peach’s Spitals Maltings, Northgate, Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire.

Malthouse Nos 1, and Nos 3 and 4 (both areas was less economic when it was converted) at Mistley, Essex of 1897 and easier to transport the malted grain. To do 1888 respectively. (Free was responsible this good transport links were needed. for designing his own maltings which Therefore, to make the malt in a rural enabled him to incorporate his own area close to the barley crop and trans- patents of hopper bottomed steeps and port the lighter commodity to where it was his kiln designs.) In 1890 there is Bishops needed made economic sense, especial- (Peach's) Spitals Maltings in Northgate, ly when large quantities of the product Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire (de- were required. So, Victorian maltings, like molished) designed by George Sheppard, their predecessors of the 18th century the borough surveyor [Fig. 4]. There were and earlier periods, were often estab- of course many others, but it was essential- lished where there were good transport ly the large maltings which were designed links. by a specialist architect or engineer. At the beginning of the period, in the late 1830s, they were built adjacent to navi- Location gable rivers and canals, but by the end of the period a railway location was equally Malt is lighter to transport than barley. if not more important. If both water and The buildings in which malt was made rail were available, the location was even were essentially large and occupied a lot more desirable.3 Although road transport of space. Thus their location in urban was in use by the end of the period it was

18 The Journal of the Brewery History Society not sufficiently important to exert any Water transport influence on the location of maltings being built - water and rail retained their An early example is that built in Raglan pre-eminence as a desirable location. Road, Retford, Nottinghamshire (fate not known) by the Chesterfield Canal in 1837 Looking at the maltings built throughout [Fig. 5]. At the other end of the period the Victorian period it is apparent that not Robert Free built his malthouses, Nos 1, all were built with adequate transport 5 and 6 (very little left of these last two) at facilities available to them. There was Mistley on the quayside, on the southern another major factor governing location, bank of the navigable river Soar. the brewery. A brewery in an urban area Malthouse No 1 was built in 1897 but the might well have its maltings nearby if not precise building dates of Nos 5 and 6 are actually on site and in this case easy not known, although they would have transport facilities were often less impor- been no earlier than the late 1880s and tant. The important factor was the market no later than the middle of the first for the beer. decade of the 20th century. Further up the

Figure 5. Maltings, Raglan Road, Retford, Nottinghamshire. The maltings fronts onto the Chesterfield Canal, which linked the north Midlands to the river Trent.

Brewery History Number 123 Summer 2006 19 East Anglian coast, at , maltings the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal, were built in particular in the later 19th although it did have a railway siding as century, along the banks of the river well. Another 19th century canal example, Orwell, and further still up the coast, the a magnificent stone built malthouse is to Snape Maltings, (part converted and the be found at Elland, West Yorkshire (fate rest due for conversion) the building of not known) on the banks of the Calder which started in the middle of the 19th and Hebble Navigation. All the above century took advantage of the river Alde, mentioned malthouses belonged to firms although they were later also served by a of independent maltsters as opposed to railway line. Likewise being brewery malthouses. was an important malting centre, and right round the top, Wells-next -the-Sea The Railways (converted) was another important malt- The main transport development of the ing town. A later canal example is Victorian period was the railway system. Downings maltings in Merchants Road, This encouraged the brewers, in particu- Gloucester built in 1899 on the banks of lar, to site their maltings in the barley

Figure 6. Thomas Berry, Sheffield Brewers’ Maltings at Sherwood Road, Worksop, Nottinghamshire.

20 The Journal of the Brewery History Society growing lands. The most impressive demolished) further down Cricklade example being the Bass Maltings at Street. The Cheltenham Original Brewery Sleaford completed in 1906. There were had their maltings on site at the junction of of course more modest examples of Henrietta Street and St Margarets Road. breweries with maltings at a distance but The shell of the maltings still stands. At linked by a railway line. Truswell's of Langthorpe, Boroughbridge, (North Sheffield had their maltings at Barnetby- Yorkshire) Warwick's Anchor Brewery had Le-Wold in Lincolnshire (built 1875 and two maltings on site (converted). A railway probably demolished by now), and line passed through the site separating Thomas Berry, also Sheffield Brewers the later malting from the brewery but it who had their maltings at Sherwood was not linked to it any way. Adnam's Sole Road, Worksop, Nottinghamshire (also Bay Brewery in Southwold, Suffolk had its built about 1875, and now demolished) maltings in the town. Of course the [Fig. 6]. The London brewers, Whitbread biggest concentration of breweries and had some of their maltings at East maltings was in Burton-on-Trent. In this Dereham, Norfolk (part converted and case some breweries had their maltings part demolished), and Trumans also of nearby or on the same site, for example London had maltings at Long Melford in Peter Walker, brewers had the Goat malt- Suffolk (part demolished and the rest con- ings in Clarence Street, and Salt and Co verted). had their maltings on site, on Wharf Road, off Wetmore Road (part demolished and Independent maltsters also located their the rest re-used). Bass has already been maltings next to or near to railways, for mentioned, but besides and well before example it would be expected that those their Sleaford maltings, they had them in in Victoria Road in Diss took advantage of Burton itself, on Shobnall Road (demol- the nearby railway line of late 1840s date. ished), Wetmore Road (converted) and F. & G. Smith's maltings at East Dereham the Plough Maltings, built in 1903, their (un-used) and Great Ryburgh (working) only pneumatic maltings, in Horninglow were both adjacent to railway lines. A later Street. All the maltings and breweries in railway example is Tuckers at Newton Burton were interlinked by railways. Abbot (working), built 1900 and extended in 1903, somewhat after the railway was Some malthouses, however, seem to opened. have been built perhaps where land was available. An example is to be found in Other locations Derby on Forman Street (early re-use), Examples of breweries which appear to where a large malthouse of late 1830s or have had their maltings on site or nearby early 1840s date was built with no imme- and with no transport links, include diate proximity to transport but in a town Cirencester, where the Cirencester with an established trade in malt. A further Brewery had its maltings (all but the front example is the malthouse in St Andrews

Brewery History Number 123 Summer 2006 21 Road, Montpellier, Bristol (converted). It result that old methods were practised was built over a railway line in the 1870s not just throughout the whole period but but had no siding and was operated by even well into the 20th century.4 various malting firms so was not located especially near a brewery. Likewise the The areas in which improvement were malthouse in Northgate, Pontefract, West made included kilns, steeps, and ventila- Yorkshire (demolished) and probably of tion. Other developments, such as chang- an 1880s date, had no direct connection ing power sources, and the movement of with the railways, and this was probably grain (conveying and elevation) were not the case with a number of Pontefract's exclusive to the malting industry, but other maltings, but Pontefract like Derby resulted from improvements and develop- already had a well-established malt ments in other industries which were then trade. The Warminster Maltings in Pound adopted in maltings. Thus steam power Street, Warminster (working), Wiltshire was introduced in some maltings but at a are another example of an urban malt- relatively late date compared with say ings without water or rail links, and this the textile industry. Examples of maltings lack of transport links applied to with engine houses include Beeston, Warminster's other 19th century maltings. Nottingham, Barnetby-Le-Wold, Lincoln- Again Warminster had an established shire and Salt's in Burton-on-Trent. Gas malt trade in the 18th century. A pre-exist- engines were probably far more common ing trade in malt seems to have led to than is realised but little trace of them maltings being established even when rarely survives and their mention is often water or rail transport was non existent or a simple throw away comment that there not so well developed, but which may was a gas engine in the corner of the have been served by the turnpike roads building. One example is that at the of an earlier period. Nailsworth Brewery Maltings (see below), and another is recorded at the Kimberley brewery's maltings. Invention and Innovation It was the introduction of conveyors and Throughout the Victorian period there elevators which eventually enabled multi- were developments intended to improve storey maltings to be built. The move- malt production, making it more efficient ment of grain meant less manual labour and therefore more cost effective. These but also greater ability to move large improvements might be small develop- quantities of barley and malt around. ments, only finding occasional favour, or Malthouse No 4 at Weymouth had a they might be widely adopted improve- complex conveying system, and many ments. The malting industry is traditional- malthouses had bucket elevators ly a conservative one and innovations installed, often by well-known firms such were not always readily accepted with the as Robert Boby.

22 The Journal of the Brewery History Society Widespread Developments be 48 inches. The couch frame, the con- struction of which was also specified. had The two developments specific to the to be next to the steep and again with a malting industry and which had consider- height of 48 inches above it.5 Thus the able impact were in the location and con- emptying of the steep was by manually struction of steeps and the design of throwing the wetted grain out and direct- kilns. The former was initially governed ly into the couch frame. This was a labour by the Malt Tax, but the latter was not. intensive procedure. It also tended to limit the location of the steep, in the earlier Steeps maltings to the bottom floor, always a At the beginning of the period, in 1837, germination floor, and later maltings to steeping cisterns had to be constructed the middle floor. In this case it was possi- in accordance with the strict legislation. ble to throw the steeped, and couched As a result they had to have flat bottoms, grain onto the germination floor adjacent with a slope of no more than ½inch in to the steep and couch and to let it down each foot, and a depth of no more than to the growing floor below via chutes, and 40 inches. The height above them had to it was possible to throw it up to an upper

Figure 7. Front of cast iron steeping cistern at Rigden’s Brewery Maltings, Faversham, Kent.

Brewery History Number 123 Summer 2006 23 germination floor. The best example of when the malthouse can be dated it has to this type of malthouse is Malthouse No 2 be borne in mind that the kiln may not be at Weymouth. of the same date. Kilns were changed and altered no doubt to improve their efficiency The steeps were constructed of either but also possibly because they were poor- stone, in the very small maltings, but ly or inadequately constructed in the first more usually of brick, and rendered to place. Broadly speaking, however, kilns water proof them. Until the repeal of the were either open furnaces with no doors, Malt Tax in 1880 there was no possibility or they were furnaces with doors, or they of any other design of steep. Afterwards, were fire basket furnaces. hopper bottomed steeps became popular and this meant the use of new material for These kilns continued in use but as new construction - cast iron, and later steel. maltings were built, especially in the last Hopper bottomed steeps had two main quarter of the 19th century patent kilns advantages in that they were self empty- were used. There were three main pro- ing thereby reducing labour and they ducers of such kilns: Robert Boby of Bury could be located on an upper floor with St Edmunds, Robert Free of Mistley, their top in a barley storage area thereby Essex, and H.J.H. King of Nailsworth, reducing labour still further, for example at Gloucestershire. The last mentioned firm the Goat Malting, which was Peter also produced heat regulators and was Walker's brewery maltings, in Clarence, well-known for their production. Two Street, Burton-on-Trent. Even when hop- others produced kilns/kiln drying floors. per bottomed steeps were not favoured, The first was Bryan Corcoran who vied cast iron was still used for rectangular with Robert Free and Henry Stopes for ones, and these too often had hatches kiln developments. The second was E.S. inserted in the bottom so that they, like Beaven who was better known for barley their hopper bottomed counter parts, breeding but was involved in kiln design could be emptied straight onto the floor at the time of the arsenic in beer problem. below. Examples of this type are known to His patent kiln of which there is only one have existed at Rigden's Brewery known example is to be found at his Maltings in Faversham. Kent [Fig. 7], and Warminster Maltings in Pound Street, at the old Maltings, at Warwick's Anchor Warminster. The maltings still operates Brewery, Langthorpe, Boroughbridge, but not using his kiln which is well-pre- North Yorkshire (converted to resi- served. The only examples of Robert dences). Free's kilns to survive were those in his own maltings at Mistley, but there were Kilns examples of Boby's Kilns at Ketton The first problem in considering kiln (demolished/converted) in Rutland [Fig. development until the later period is that 8], and at Beeston. H.J.H. King's kilns are of allocating a kiln to a specific date. Even known to have existed at the Cirencester

24 The Journal of the Brewery History Society Figure 9. H.J.H. King Furnace, Malthouse, Clemthorpe, York. Figure 8. Boby Kiln Furnace, the Maltings, Ketton, Rutland.

Brewery History Number 123 Summer 2006 25 Brewery Maltings in Cricklade Street, second edition of 1897 states at page 71 Cirencester and at Clemthorpe, York that it was dependent on the draught [Fig. 9]. created by the rush of air through the kiln fires. The arrangement consisted of Not only were there developments in a series of openings made in the short furnace construction but also in kiln dry- wall at the kiln end of each floor (a ing floor construction. There were two dozen or more to each floor) which main developments. The first was the openings have falling doors to close progression from perforated ceramic kiln them. These apertures open into the tile drying floors to wedge wire drying space surrounding the kiln (the dunge). floors, although the former did remain At the opposite end, (the cistern end) popular and in use until the end of the are similar openings but less numerous 20th century. The flow of air through the for admitting air from the outside and wedge wire being far greater than obtaining a longitudinal air current. through the perforated tiles. The second Malthouse No 4 at Weymouth has the development was the introduction of openings as described on each growing double floored kilns, for example floor but not as many as 12. The original Merchants Road, Gloucester. The suc- plans showed 24 apertures in the wall of cess of these is doubtful, certainly in the the northwest kiln dunge and 18 in the 19th century, as most examples which wall of the northeast kiln dunge, how- still survive seem to have ended up ever in this latter wall there was door using only one of the floors, or the kiln access to the growing floors. In the itself only remained in use for a short northwest kiln it would appear that there time. Also there were improvements in were 12 apertures to the bottom growing the draw of air up through the kiln drying floor, eight to the middle and four to the floors by the introduction of fans in the top, rather less on the top two floors cowls, for example Blackman's fans.6 than the description! However, the description does not give the kiln size, Specific Developments so this may have been a smaller kiln or There were of course many other devel- perhaps reality did not match theory. opments, but one improvement which This malthouse, like Malthouse No 2 does deserve mention is Last's Patent was designed by G.R. Crickmay. In the Ventilating system. There is only one outer wall, at the opposite end from the known example of this in Malthouse No kiln there are just 6 apertures to each of 4 at Weymouth and it resulted in the the top two growing floors, making 12 in building, now converted to residences all. The apertures at the other end of the being upgrade and listed as Grade II* growing floors appear to have been built [Figs. 10 & 11]. The most easily avail- in accordance with the architect's plans. able description is to be found in H.E. Wright's A Handy Book for Brewers. The

26 The Journal of the Brewery History Society Figure 11. Malthouse No 4, Weymouth - Last’s patent patent - Last’s No 4, Weymouth Malthouse Figure 11. ventilator - interior. Figure 10. Malthouse No 4, Weymouth - Last’s patent - Last’s Figure 10. Malthouse No 4, Weymouth ventilator - exterior.

Brewery History Number 123 Summer 2006 27 The Innovators Jones's maltings at a building far better know for other reasons, Bage's Although hopper bottomed or self-empty- Ditherington Flax Mill which in 1884 was ing steeps came to be widely used, two converted for use as a maltings by the men in particular were known to specifi- insertion of cast iron hopper bottomed cally promote them. They were Henry steeps and a double kiln drying floor to Stopes and Robert Free. There was cer- designs by Stopes. The double floor sur- tainly rivalry between these two men who vived but had not been in use when malt- both came from Essex and who both died ing ceased on the site in 1984. It has to in 1902, Robert Free on 24 January, and be admitted that the kiln, the visible part Henry Stopes on 5 December.7 Each is of Stopes' work was essentially function- sufficiently important for space to be al and certainly not attractive. devoted to them. The Brewers' Journal records a number Henry Stopes of works with which Stopes was appar- Henry Stopes is probably best know for ently involved. In 1882 these included: a his book Malt and Malting published in malthouse for Tamplin's Brewery at 1885. This book became, in the later 19th Brighton where a double kiln was century, almost the maltster's bible. It installed and then one for the maltsters contained details on all aspects of malt- Giradot, Flinn & Co of Bishops Stortford.8 ings including the construction of malt- Two years later Stopes was involved in ings, the various types of kiln, details of the building of new kilns or the improve- minor and major pieces of equipment, ment of existing ones at Cameron's of and on what malt is and how it should be Hartlepool, Messrs Crisp & Son, Beccles, made, and some details on the history of Flowers & Sons at Stratford-upon-Avon, malt. He was a great believer in a variety a seventh kiln for Giradot, Flinn & Co of of improvements and in particular was a Bishops Stortford, J. Green of Luton, J. great advocate of self -emptying hopper Legg of Bridport, A Leney & Co of Dover, bottomed steeps and double kiln drying a second kiln, Morrells Trustees, Oxford floors. (Morrells Brewery held Stopes' plans of these improvements), Phipps and Co of He did design whole maltings but his Northampton, T. Ramsden & Sons, forte seems to have been malthouse Halifax, and The Redruth Brewery Co, improvements. One example of his com- Redruth.9 Subsequent years of the plete design is William Jones's Belle Vue Brewers' Journal give similar reports. Maltings in Shrewsbury. The building has There can be little doubt that Stopes had been converted to offices, and probably a substantial impact on the design of no complete record of it now exists. An maltings whether large or small. example of his kiln design is also to be found in Shrewsbury in another of William An extremely small example of his work

28 The Journal of the Brewery History Society survives at two malthouses in Nailsworth innovator. His malting business was which is surprisingly well-documented. In established with Mr Rodwell in Mistley, 1883 a reference in the Brewers' Journal and at Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex. The (page 149 refers to the work being under- Thorpe-le-Soken maltings consisted of taken by Messrs H. Stopes and Co and two built end to end, in 1875 and they this included being ‘engaged in adapting were able to take advantage of the railway. to their plans the malthouses and kilns of Those at Mistley, and eventually there Messrs Clissold & Sons, [Brewers] were seven, were built at a later date, Nailsworth’. Unusually for a small town mainly in the 1880s and the 1890s, with brewery, it was visited by Alfred Barnard the last one, Malthouse No 7 being built in and a record of his visit is to be found in the first decade of the 20th century. All are his Noted Breweries of Great Britain and or were impressive buildings, but Nos 1, 3, Ireland. He noted that there were two 4 and 7 being larger and with more floors malthouses located some 100 yards from than any others ever built in England. the brewery and that they were of 15 and Malthouse No 1 on Mistley Quayside had 30 quarter steep capacity. The No 2 malt- eight floors, separate barley stores, an house had been recently built and was 80 engine house with a massive chimney, feet in length and 32 feet in width and con- and two barley kilns. It was built in 1897 tained two cement steeps. The floors in but damaged by fire the following year.11 both malthouses were laid with asphalt Malthouses Nos 3 and 4 in School Lane and they were lighted with eight ventilating were built nine years earlier in 1888 and windows. The ceilings were supported on were of five floors.12 Although near to the stout cast iron columns. Over the growing quayside these two malthouses had no floors were spacious barley garners and direct access and did not have a rail link malt stores. The kiln was a double one (despite the illustration). From the malting and both drying floors were laid with point of view they were without a barley Hermann's patent wire flooring, and the kiln. This was rectified when Malthouse No green malt was delivered by a chain hoist 7 was built adjacent to Nos 3 and 4 and worked by a gas engine. In the roof was a linked by a gantry. gangway on which the barley was wheeled in bins. No 1 [malthouse] kiln The survival of these malthouse is mixed. logie contained two open furnaces Malthouse No 1 with its barley stores and enclosed in brick chambers which were fit- barley kiln has been converted to mixed ted with patent draught regulators and use. Malthouse Nos 3 and 4 have been heat dispersers. The kilns' heat regulators converted to residences, although most of were supplied by H.J.H. King according to No 4 was demolished in this process and their catalogue for 1906.10 No 7 which was damaged by fire in April 1995 has been demolished. Malthouse Robert Free Nos 5 and 6 further up Mistley have quay Robert Free was a practising maltster and minimal remains surviving. Malthouse No

Brewery History Number 123 Summer 2006 29 2 does survive and is the only one still method of malting. Some plans of his connected with the malting industry as Halesworth maltings do survive, but his EDME, producers of malt extract is on attempts at pneumatic malting were not the site. successful and were not pursued. All that remains of his one substantial enterprise It is known that in Malthouse Nos 1, 3, 4 is a small malting block on Quay Street and 7 that Free installed his patent now converted to residences. kilns.13 The Brewers' Journal also has references to other malthouses installing There was then a gap of some thirty Free's patent kilns,14 and to his years before there was a further success- patents.15 With regard to the hopper bot- ful attempt at implementing a pneumatic tomed steeps, these did exist in malting system, although there were Malthouse Nos 3, 4 and 7, as well as No largely unsuccessful attempts notably by 1. The latter is the only one which has Tizard. No known examples of his build- been recorded. Free's patent for steeping ings survive. The two systems which cisterns was taken out in 1882. were eventually successful and remained in use until the end of the 20th century were those of Galland and Saladin. The Pneumatic Maltings former produced the drum system of malting and the latter the box system. In Probably the most important develop- the drum system the germinating grain ment during the Victorian period was the was placed in a drum which was rotated development of the pneumatic system of to achieve the turning of the grain. In the producing malt. Today pneumatic malting box system, the turning of the grain was is synonymous with a pneumatic and achieved by rotating screws being run mechanical system. This was not always backwards and forwards in the box. In the case and the early attempts to use the box system air was forced through pneumatic systems did not include the the perforated bottom of the box and in mechanical turning of the grain which the case of the drum system the air was was still turned manually.16 forced through a central air shaft. However, Galland's first pneumatic malt- Also, it has to be admitted that pneumat- ing system was not a drum malting but a ic malting was never particularly success- box one, furthermore it was only pneu- ful in England until the second half of the matic not mechanical. The grain was still 20th century. Although pneumatic malting turned by hand. is primarily associated with the last quar- ter of the 19th century, the first innovator Galland's first pneumatic malting was in this line was Patrick Stead a success- constructed at Maxeville, near Nancy, ful Suffolk maltster of Scottish origins France in 1873. It was then introduced who in 1842 patented a pneumatic into Ireland at Roscrea for Messrs Perry

30 The Journal of the Brewery History Society and Co. In England the first pneumatic slightly later for Messrs Sedgwick and Co malting on Galland's box system was at at Watford. Beeston, just outside Nottingham. It was constructed in 1878, for Messrs Waite, Of these examples, the only building Corbould and Faulkner of the Beeston known to survive with at least its original Brewery Company. It was closely fol- shell is that at Beeston [Fig. 12]. The lowed by one for Messrs Flowers and pneumatic maltings were part of the Sons at Stratford-upon-Avon, and there Beeston Brewery Company's premises, was some contention as to which was the and the whole process appears to have first, the one at Beeston or the one at been undertaken in one building. It is dif- Stratford but it was generally accepted ficult to determine how successful it was, that the Beeston maltings was the first although an extension was proposed in pneumatic maltings. Two other pneumat- 1884.17 The whole building was convert- ic maltings on the same system were ed to a floor malting for the Nottingham constructed shortly afterwards, firstly for brewers Shipstone's in 1926. What hap- Nimmo and Sons at the Castle Eden pened to the other pneumatic maltings is Brewery, County Durham, and then not known.

Figure 12. Beeston Maltings, Nottingham - the first pneumatic maltings in Britain.

Brewery History Number 123 Summer 2006 31 It is generally believed that the next suc- as in the case of box malting, there is an cessful pneumatic plant was the first earlier reference to drum maltings in the Saladin Box plant built at Wainford, Brewers' Journal, in 1891 when a Ditchingham, Norfolk for R.W. Mann and Galland drum maltings was constructed operational in 1891. It survived into the for the distillery of Messrs Haigh and Co last quarter of the 20th century but was at Hammersmith, London.21 demolished in the 1980s. However, refer- ences in the Brewers' Journal indicate What is clear from a perusal of the that in the mid 1880s pneumatic maltings Brewers' Journal, and it has to be were under construction and that the remembered that by no means every Wainford box maltings may not have pneumatic maltings constructed was been the first. In 1884 there is a refer- noted in this publication, is that it was pri- ence to the building of a new malthouse marily brewers and distillers who were for a Mr L.. Brutton at Yeovil on the prepared to invest in pneumatic plant.22 ‘improved pneumatic and Stopes sys- The method favoured appears to have tem’.18 The costs included ‘machinery in been the drum malting system, although the basement - J. Saladin, Nancy £667. again this may only be a reflection of 0s. 0d..’ The exterior of the malthouse what was reported in the Brewers' was illustrated as the frontispiece in Journal. The one exception was the Stopes' book Malt and Malting. It is also above mentioned malting for H.A. and D. worth noting that an illustration in the Taylor. The reason for the apparent reluc- Brewers' Journal for the previous year, tant up take may lie in some of the histo- 1883, shows a Stopes/Saladin box with ry of the Wainford Saladin Box maltings. turning screws.19 So clearly there was Its building and opening may not have the theory available to construct a pneu- been reported in the Brewers' Journal, matic maltings on the box principle but but the financial demise of its owners whether it worked is not known! was. In 1906 just 15 years after it started operating, the failure of R. & W. Mann, Likewise is has generally been accepted Suffolk maltsters of Ditchingham was that the first drum malting plant was built reported and the cause of the ‘failure’ for H.A. and D. Taylor at Lower Sheering was given as ‘heavy cost of pneumatic in Essex. The first reference to its con- malting erected in 1891 and the fall in the struction comes in the Brewers' Journal value of our property’. The cost of the in 1894 when the plant designed by pneumatic malting was ‘£15,000 and Inskipp and MacKenzie was under con- upwards’ whereas they had been led to struction.20 Work was completed and the believe the cost would be about malting was operation in 1896 when it £8,000.23 Indeed even in the 20th centu- was illustrated in the Brewers' Journal. ry Ross Mackenzie noted ‘the initial cost This building does survive but has been of installing the pneumatic system is converted to residences. However, again, appreciably higher than the primary

32 The Journal of the Brewery History Society expenditure on the floor method, and the numerous patents, many of which were latter is maintained and worked more probably not successful. By the end of economically.’24 the period fully pneumatic and mechani- cal maltings were in operation, but for The true extent of England's early pneu- many maltsters and even brewers, the matic maltings will never be known. After outlay was too great an expense. The an initial first flurry of building of pneu- seeds of change had been sown, but real matic, but not mechanical plant in the change, however, did not come until long early 1880s, there was a gap of several after the demise of the Victorian period. years before pneumatic and mechanical were constructed. Even then the uptake was relatively slow and pneumatic malt- Bibliography ing was never as popular as the floor maltings which continued to dominate the Barnard, A. (1889 - 1896) The Noted maltings built in the Victorian period. Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland. Causton Brown, J. (1983) Steeped in Tradition: Conclusions The malting industry in England since the rail- way age. University of Reading The malting industry is a notoriously con- Cooksey, J. (1984) Brewery Buildings in servative one. At the beginning of the Burton-on-Trent. period malthouses of two to four storeys Patrick, A. (1996) ‘Establishing a were being built, whereas at the end of Typology for the buildings of the Floor Malting the period they were built with three to Industry’. Industrial Archaeology Review, 18 eight storeys. Generally there was an (2), 180-200. overall increase in size and smaller malt- Stopes, H. (1885) Malt and Malting, houses tended to be squeezed out of London business. The repeal of the malt tax in 1880 which enabled hopper bottomed Brewers’ Journal. and self emptying steeps to be used, helped to permit the increase in size, but My records on some 400 malthouses, ranging this was not the only factor. The in date from c 1500 to c 1970. increased use of power and the elevation and conveying of grain (barley and malt) were also major factors in the increase in References malthouse size. There was progress in other features such as kiln design and 1. Patrick, A. (1996) ‘Establishing a ventilation. There was certainly innova- Typology for the buildings of the Floor Malting tion by a number of men, notably Henry Industry’. Industrial Archaeology Review, 18 Stopes and Robert Free, and there were (2), 180-200.

Brewery History Number 123 Summer 2006 33 2. See National Monuments Record, NBR 11. Brewers' Journal for 1897, 34 and for 95749. 1898, 390. 3. See Alderton, D. (2005) ‘The chicken 12. Brewers' Journal for 1888, October or the Egg? The Relationship Between illustration. Industry and Transport in East Anglia’. 13. The kilns in these malthouses were Industrial Archaeology Review, 27 (1), 121- seen by the author as follows: Malthouses 3, 128. 4 and 7 in July 1993 and Malthouse No 1 in 4. For example the 18th century malt- March and August 2000. house and kiln at Brockhampton, 14. Brewers' Journal for 1884, 252 refers Gloucestershire continued in production until to Messrs Benskin & Co of Watford erecting a 1939. new maltings fitted with double drying floors 5. See Ford, W. (1862) A Practical on Free's patent system. Treatise on Malting and Brewing with an 15. Brewers' Journal for 1888, 107 refers Historical Account of the Malt Trade and laws to Free's patent for ‘improvement in kilns for deduced from 40 years experience. London, drying malt’. 156 et seq. 16. See the Brewers' Journal for 1878, 6. See Stopes, 205 for an illustration of a 332, and the Brewers' Guardian for 1878, 353 Blackman fan. for a description of pneumatic malting at this 7. Brewers' Journal for 1902, 75 and 700 date. respectively. 17. Brewers' Journal for 1884, 356. 8. Brewers' Journal for 1882, pages 14 18. Brewers' Journal for 1884, 213. and 218 respectively. 19. Brewers' Journal for 1883, 348. 9. Brewers' Journal for 1884, 315. 20. Brewers' Journal for 1894, 334. 10.When this paper was given as a lec- 21. Brewers' Journal for 1891, 149. ture on 25 February 2006, I commented that 22.Of some 18 pneumatic maltings con- these malthouses were not protected, that is structed in England and noted in the Brewers' they were not listed. Therefore, it will be of Journal, only two were for maltsters. The rest interest to readers to know that in my post on were for brewers or distillers. my return home was a notification that they 23. Brewers' Journal for 1906, 115. had been listed, on 20 February 2006, at 24. Ross Mackenzie, J. (1921) Brewing Grade II. and Malting. Pitman, London, 26.

34 The Journal of the Brewery History Society