The Malt Kiln, Including Former Maltster'S Cottage

The Malt Kiln, including former Maltster's cottage

Maltings and cottage, now converted to 2 dwellings. Built in 1780 for Cornelius Sandars with a riverfront addition of around 1840. Renovations and conversion to dwellings took place between 1976 and 1980.

The building is constructed of yellow-orange brick in the 18th-century section, with red brick in the 19th-century section. Both parts have pantile roofs. The plan is U-shaped: the original L-shaped range comprises a rectangular malting shed of 10 internal bays with its west gable end to the street, a 2-room maltster's cottage with central lobby entry adjoining the street front, and a malting kiln in the angle between them. A later 3-bay river front was added at right angles to the east. The building is 2 storeys with a basement.

The north side shows the 18th-century section with 5 bays and a single-bay addition to the left, separated by a pilaster buttress. Four small segmental-arched basement hatches, two with iron bars, are visible. A flight of iron steps leads up to a central ground-floor entrance with a two-fold board door beneath a timber lintel, flanked by pairs of 20th-century 2-light casements in original openings beneath segmental arches. A 20th-century stuccoed panel at first-floor level to the right displays a faded painted company name. The first floor features a central 2-fold board door beneath a timber lintel and a weatherboarded gable with a projecting crane hoist. Pairs of 20th-century 2-light windows occupy original openings beneath soldier arches. A dentilled brick eaves cornice runs along the top, with a stone-coped gable to the right. The roof is hipped to the left.

The left return forms the east river front with 3 first-floor windows. Blocked segmental-headed basement openings are visible, with steps leading up to a timber loading platform in front of a central segmental-arched entrance with a 20th-century glazed door. This is flanked by single 6-pane centrally-pivoted casements. Circular tie-bar ends and a large X tie-bar end appear at first-floor level, accompanied by 3 similar first-floor windows. A painted company name reads "W GLEADELL & SONS Ltd CORN MERCHANTS". A dentilled brick eaves cornice and right-hipped roof finish this elevation. The left gable end has a single similar window to each floor.

The west street front displays twin gabled ranges of maltings to the left, adjoining a lower 2-storey Maltster's cottage to the right. On the left: a central segmental-arched basement hatch is flanked by 19th-century inserted louvred hatches. A ground-floor board door to the right sits beneath a segmental arch, with a 2-light segmental-headed casement to the left. A faded painted company name appears at first-floor level, with a pair of similar first-floor windows and a single small attic window above. The cottage section to the right has a single 4-pane sash in a flush wooden architrave beneath a segmental arch. Twin gables with parapet meet at the central valley, stone-coped with a shaped kneeler to the right.

The south front shows the cottage with 2 first-floor windows and a glazed 4-panel door beneath a segmental arch, flanked by 4-pane sashes in flush wooden architraves with sills beneath segmental stretcher arches. Similar first-floor sashes beneath flat arches and a dentilled brick eaves cornice complete the detailing. A central axial stack and stone-coped gables finish the cottage. The adjoining kiln section, lowered to single storey in the 20th century, retains an original central heavy board door with sliding ventilation hatches, flanked by single original wooden ventilators, now beneath a 20th-century glazed roof. A 2-window section of the main range to the right has a ground-floor board door beneath a segmental arch and windows similar to those on the north side.

Interior

The main range contains heavy beams with central wooden piers to the basement and ground floor. A steeping tank is set into the basement beneath the 19th-century section. The ground floor has a plaster surface (former malting floor) and the first floor is tiled (former dressing floor). The roof is a king-post design with raking struts and tenoned-and-keyed staggered butt purlins.

The kiln features a round-headed arch to the oven with 19th-century cast-iron doors by Kings of Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, flanked by ventilation chambers. A re-set roasting floor above has glazed perforated tiles by Stanley Brothers of Nuneaton, and the original iron framework for a former roasting floor sits above this.

Historical Context

Cornelius Sandars, father of the local benefactor Frances Sandars, founded the company here which later became Sandars and Paul, Maltsters. Malting ceased here around 1926. This is a prominent riverside building with original features sympathetically incorporated in the present dwellings, and represents one of the few maltings surviving from this period in the Lincolnshire-Humberside region.