The Malt House

The Malt House

A house with attached granary and underground maltkiln and cellars, originally built in the late 17th century, then raised and remodelled around 1805–1810, with further alterations and additions in the early 19th, mid-19th and 20th centuries. The building is constructed of ashlar and red brick with ashlar dressings, and has slate and plain tile roofs.

The main house is two storeys plus basement and garrets, arranged in a three-window range. The front elevation features a first-floor sill band, dentillated eaves, coped gables, and two gable and single ridge stacks. A central stone Tuscan portico contains an early 19th-century six-panel door with two glazed panels, flanked by single windows. Above these are three windows, one of which has been renewed. These windows are glazing bar sashes with splayed lintels and keystones. Across the frontage runs a stone terrace with three segmental cellar openings, the central one hidden by steps.

At the rear, a large glazing bar sash in a wooden surround is set above two early 19th-century two-light casements. To the right, a single-bay projection was raised in the early 19th century and has a ridge stack. The north side includes a 20th-century casement and above it an early 19th-century three-light casement. In the return angle sits an early 19th-century six-panel door with overlight. The left gable has a small first-floor window, and at garret level, a round-arched doorway and a smaller window with leaded glazing. The projection features a stone external stair leading to a four-panel door, and a blocked opening in the gable.

At the north-west end stands a gabled outbuilding, single storey and single bay, supporting the maltkiln flue. The north-west gable has small openings, formerly pigeonholes, and a round stone finial. A 20th-century lean-to addition extends to the south-west, linked to a 19th-century gabled privy and stone trough. A board door and 19th-century three-light casement are on the north-east side.

The adjoining granary is two storeys plus basement, arranged in two bays, with an acutely angled corner to the right defined by quoins and rebated eaves. To the left is a large segmental opening with keystone, now blocked, flanked by square buttresses. Above it is an opening blocked with an early 19th-century fireback. Above this are two small glazing bar lights and an early 19th-century three-light casement. At the rear, a door with ventilation slits is topped by a renewed door reached by a 19th-century external stone stair, above which sits an early 19th-century three-light casement. The gable end has segment-headed openings on the upper floors.

Enclosing the rear yard is a mid-19th-century stone boundary wall with three square piers having pyramidal caps.

Interior

The house contains a crosswise corridor with moulded cornice and elliptical arch. The principal room to the left has an original six-panel door and 20th-century panelling, together with a late 19th-century fireplace flanked by elliptical-arched recesses. The principal room to the right has an early 19th-century cornice with fleurons. An off-centre cross passage has exposed spine beams, one with lambstongue stops. The rear projection contains stone and brick structure covering a cellar opening. Plain stairs lead to the first floor, which has mainly 20th-century partitions and a plain early 19th-century fire surround. A round-arched opening leads into the garrets, which have a double-purlin roof, partly ceiled.

The granary, largely remodelled in the late 20th century, has exposed structural timbers and a double-purlin roof with kingpost truss. The outbuilding has a single-purlin roof and contains copper and thrawl.

The cellars feature a brick vaulted entrance at the south-east end with stone steps to the lower levels. Alongside the steps are brick and stone tanks with grain chutes in the vault above. Beneath the house lies a stone barrel-vaulted cellar with an inserted floor from the 19th century, forming a maltkiln. At the south-east end are brick round arches and the remains of the furnace. At the north-west end is the kiln floor with tiles carried on a wrought iron grid supported on brick arches, and a rock-cut stairway with brick barrel vault, adapted as a flue and leading to a stack at ground level. Brick vaulted cross passages provide access to the furnace and the kiln floor.

Parallel to the stone cellar, and on a lower level, lies a larger cellar with brick barrel vault. At the south-east end are steps leading to a ground-level entrance and a square of kiln tiles defining a couching floor. On the south-west side are three segmental vents and a narrow barrel-vaulted entrance passage containing a structure similar to a mounting block. At the north-west end is a broad cross passage leading to a smaller barrel-vaulted cellar sloping down to a ground-level entrance on the nearby Horse Road.