Baird'S Malthouse

Baird's Malthouse is a mid-19th century building that has been converted into offices. It features squared limestone rubble and a half-hipped slate roof with two ridge vents. The structure has a rectangular plan, with a single, windowless storey facing the street and two storeys at the rear. The thick coped walls at the front and rear rise to truncated pediments above the half-hipped roof. There are plain segmental arches leading to the central double doors, which are from the 20th century. At the rear, a flight of steps leads down to a platform with 20th-century windows in two semicircular arched openings on the lower ground floor. To the left is a former kiln, which has a square plan, a pyramidal slate roof, and a tapered weather boarded vent at the apex, along with two semicircular arched openings that also feature 20th-century windows on the ground floor. The interior has not been inspected, but survey drawings from 1972 by John Mosse ARIBA indicate that the main building has an eight-bay, three-storey layout supported by cast iron columns beneath a wide queen post truss roof. This malthouse is one of the notable remaining examples of canal-based industry along the Kennet and Avon Canal, which opened in 1810, and was built for Hugh Baird and Sons, maltsters.