The Malthouse

This is a small, rural malthouse, dating from the 18th century, with a later 19th-century range of agricultural outbuildings attached to the rear. The main range is three storeys high and is constructed of brick with timber framing to the upper floors. The roof has been renewed with corrugated iron sheeting. The front elevation features early handmade brickwork to the ground floor, with a low doorway to the left and two broad openings with shallow brick arches, now fitted with modern wood slats. The upper storeys display two tiers of square timber framing, including long tension braces and brick panel infill. A renewed timber staircase provides access to an upper doorway; two small window openings have been inserted. The rear elevation is similarly constructed, with a lower gable rebuilt beneath the apex, retaining earlier brickwork. A gabled wing housing the kiln is built of local rubble with brick at the eaves, associated with re-roofing. The later 19th-century outbuildings are constructed of machine-made brick with blue brick dressings.

The ground floor likely originally housed steeping troughs, with an entrance to the kiln in the rear wall. The upper floors, which served as malting floors, are accessed via external stairs to the first floor, and an internal staircase inserted in the central hauling bay. Each floor has boarded ceilings and a roof comprised of three king-post trusses. The central truss appears to be the earliest, with more substantial timbers, but all follow a consistent pattern of a king post with steep principal rafters and secondary rafters relating to a later roofline. Tie-beams project beyond the feet of the rafters, and wall-posts are roughly cut away immediately below the joint with the trusses. Several timbers show clear signs of re-use. A timber hoist is located over the central hauling bay. The kiln wing retains much of the original kiln, despite damage from the collapse of a malting floor. The firebox is contained within a central brick column, sprung out as vaulting over a surrounding passage and originally supporting the malting floor. A stoke hole faces a doorway from the lower floor of the main range, and a cast iron grate remains in place. Fragments of perforated tiles are also present. A timber-framed partition lies embedded between the rear of the kiln wing and the rear wall of the main range, featuring wall posts and struts above a cut-through tie-beam; it is not tied into the existing walls and appears to be a relic of an earlier building on the site, potentially accounting for the amount of reused timber in the main range.