Former Granaries at Snape Maltings

Former Granaries at Snape Maltings

These former granaries were built in two phases: the first around 1884 and the second between 1918 and 1927.

The 19th-century block is constructed of red brick with gault brick pilasters and dressings, topped with a pantiled roof. The 20th-century block has an internal steel frame with exterior walls of pale Fletton brick and a Welsh slate roof. All brickwork is laid in English bond.

Both phases employ pier and panel construction. All brick pilasters have pattress plates. The 19th-century pattress plates are bullseye roundels without founders' marks, while the 20th-century plates are plain roundels marked 'W B'. Door and window openings are generally beneath segmental brick arches.

The 19th-century block to the north is two storeys high. Its north elevation is gabled and displays an original plaque dated 1884, with a late 20th-century flagpole near the apex. A first-floor loading door is partly infilled with a railing and 21st-century window, while the ground-floor entrance has been partly bricked up, leaving a small window. The west elevation comprises eight structural bays. Two left-of-centre bays contain a ground-floor entrance and a blocked first-floor taking-in doorway, while two right-of-centre bays have small window openings. A single additional window near the eaves on the right side is a later addition. The three-storey early 20th-century range to the right extends eight structural bays. Its upper two storeys, originally windowless, now contain four small windows on each floor. The ground floor has three similar windows and two doorways, one beneath a flat concrete lintel.

The south elevation is three bays wide and gabled. At the gable apex, one of two weather-boarded structures (referred to as bluffs, similar to lucams) straddles the ridge, beneath which is a doorway opening onto a high-level footbridge connecting to 1952 silos. The only other openings are at ground floor: a blocked doorway with a flat concrete lintel and a small window. The south-east corner is chamfered at ground floor, rising to a mitred brick corner.

The east elevation features late 20th-century or early 21st-century dog-leg staircases—one of metal on the left, one of timber on the right—with doorways at each landing. Between them is a two-storey outshot forming part of the 20th-century range, with a single-storey element at its southern end. The outshot's door and window openings are largely original except for the right-hand doorway. A long single-storey extension, added later in the 20th century, is attached to the north side of the outshot. The upper storey of the 19th-century range has three additional windows inserted near the eaves cornice, with flat concrete lintels.

The 20th-century range has a pitched roof covered in Welsh slate. At each end are weather-boarded bluffs. The southern bluff has louvered openings allowing it to function as a bat roost in the 21st century. At the centre of the ridge between the two bluffs is a square cowl with a wide shallow cap.

The interiors are largely plain and open plan, exposing the building's original structural elements. In the 20th-century range, the internal steel frame bears founders' marks from Dorman Long & Co Foundry in Middlesbrough. The floor levels between the two ranges do not match.

The two-storey outshot on the east elevation has an open interior volume and may have been an engine room. It retains a single section of machinery: four wall-mounted brackets support a line shaft with three wheels that once attached to belts.

The first floor of the 19th-century range has exposed structural tie bars made from railway rails (marked BW&C WP65), above which are stud frames of internal partitions. At the east end, small 21st-century rooms have been inserted, and a Juliet balcony with sliding window has been created from the original loading bay. At this level the 20th-century range is taller than the other storeys and retains its original pine floors.

The 20th-century range has an additional upper storey with original floors; regular rectangular scars within suggest where flues or slides once provided for the movement of goods. The roof structure of the 19th-century range has original trusses, small collars, twin purlins, and replacement 21st-century common rafters. The interior of the 20th-century roof structure could not be inspected.

The plan has been altered to meet the functions of flexible commercial space.