Maltings Depository

A large malthouse, now converted to offices, was originally built in the early 19th century. It has undergone alterations in the mid-19th century, around 1900, and again in 2000-2002. The architects for the most recent phase were Edward Nash. The building is constructed of coursed and squared stone to the road front, coursed rubble to the returns, with ashlar dressings and Roman tiled roofs. The building comprises a wide span block set gable to the road, with a lower, earlier range set at a right angle to the right, and a hipped, set-back outer end adjacent to the river. Windows are two-light wood casements in flush surrounds with square stone lintels. The main range is three storeys high with an attic, with two windows in the gable above five windows at lower levels; the last bay to the right is slightly canted back. A long return to the left has five wide bays, with a large former vent to the ridge at the far end. The return to the right has a deep, central, timber-framed gabled hoist carried on cantilever props to stone corbels, with horizontal boarded sides, and long casements to the eaves on each side. The main fenestration is similar to the other side, with some blocked lights, and a pair of loading doors at first floor level in a four-bay section. The return range is constructed of coursed rubble, with three small square lights at second floor, three paired lights at first floor, and wide shuttered doorways to steel lintels at ground level. The west end of this range has two small square lights above a larger two-light casement to a segmental head. The interior was not inspected. The origins of the maltings complex are unclear, but the construction of a turnpike road and the Great Western Railway in 1840 led to reconstruction along the northern part of the site. Around 1900, rebuilding included imported French steel beams carried on cast-iron columns, an early example of concrete slab floors, and a timber queen-post roof. The reinforced concrete pyramidal roof to the barley-drying kiln is an early instance of the Hennebique system. Further alterations occurred following road widening in the later 20th century. Surviving elements of the Georgian phase include the east wall of the southern block, the outer walls of the east-west aligned block, and parts of the former kiln wall. The site retains good industrial townscape value and features of considerable structural interest.