Mid 19th century maltings, 'Old Maltings', Heybridge (EHER 40657)

A mid 19th century brick-built maltings with a sheet-metal roof (originally slate-covered). The different elements of the malthouse comprise a small office/barley store at the NE end, germinating floors, kiln and malt store. It is a standard Ware Pattern floor malting working NE-SE, and was sited to facilitate the dispatch of malt via barge or lighter, having its own wharf backing onto Heybridge Creek. When assessed in 2006, the entire range was suffering from subsidence due to its location.

Malting probably built during the 1860s. The site comprised a granary, malt kiln, coke oven, coach house, stable etc and is bounded to the north by Hall Road and to the east by Heybridge hall and Heybridge Creek to the south. The deeds (ERO D/DCf/B777) include a draft conveyance dated 1869 for £1050 from C. F. Kemp of 8 Walbrook, C of London to Henry Eve and Sampson Hanbury (jnr.), Merchants of Maldon. <1> Sampson Hanbury (Snr) was a brewer who took over Trumans Black Eagle Brewery in Brick Lane London in 1789. By 1835 after Hanbury's death his nephew, Thomas Buxton, took over from Hanbury and the brewery was renamed 'Truman, Hanbury, Buxton and Co.'. By 1875, around 10 years after the Old Maltings at Heybridge were built, it became the largest brewery company in the world. During the latter part of the 19th century, 'T.H.B and Co.' became a public company and by the 1930s moved the majority of their brewing to Burton. <2> The Old Maltings, Hall Road is a standard Ware Pattern floor malting working NE-SE. Simply the barley was steeped in the NE bay of the ten-bay two storey malthouse. Following germination on two floors, the green malt progressed SW toward the in-line kiln (now cold store) where it was roasted for three days and then transferred to the (cranked) maltstore at the SW end of the range. Here the malt was cleaned and sacked before its dispatch by barge or lighter via the maltings own timber wharf backing onto Heybridge Creek. The different elements of the malthouse comprise a small office/barley store at the NE end, germinating floors, kiln and maltstore. The office/barley store range was built with a brick ground floor and a timber framed upper storey with a twin pile roof. The upper storey is weatherboarded and roof covered in corrugated sheet (originally slate). Water penetration through the roof has resulted in the collapse of the valley and the corresponding binding joist below. The ten-bay malthouse or germinating floors was originally two storey, as seen by the pattern of the windows, although due to the characteristic low head height common to germinating floors, the first floor had been removed. Also, judging by the height of the ground floor window sills the lower germinating floor was semi-basemented. Now however the floor has been raised level with the exterior ground surface. The long walls are built in pier and panel, with two windows per bay and decorative cogging at the eaves. Both walls are suffering from subsidence. The bricks are probably locally produced reds bonded using a lime mortar. Internally few original features, including the steeping tank, appear to survive. The roof trusses are machine sawn softwood probably imported Baltic pine and are moderately heavy with both queen and raking struts. The trusses support double purlins the lower a back purlin the upper trapped by the queen strut. The rafters are also machine sawn and pinch a ridge board at apex. The original fireproof iron door to the kiln floor (originally accessed from the first floor) remains in the kilns north wall (between former germinating floors and kiln). A hatch above probably enabled access to the pyramidal roof, which has since been removed and replaced by shallow gabled roof, or to a second kiln floor (such as that used at nearby Saltcote malting, EHER 15052). The two bay malt kiln, is a much more robust structure built to cope with the continual heating and cooling it was routinely subjected to. Internally the kiln floor or floors have been removed as has all evidence of the original kiln furnace and coke store. A hatch in the south wall of the kiln at the former kiln floor level would have enabled the roasted malt to be shovelled directly into the adjacent maltstore. Cranked to the west the two storey maltstore lies at the end of the process and was used in cleaning, sacking and storing the malt ready for dispatch. The maltstore is built with a brick ground floor and weatherboard clad timber upper storey and slate covered hipped roof. The building is braced by lateral ties and supported on the south side by large brick buttresses. Poor ground conditions one would associate with the buildings location so close to the creek has caused significant subsidence of the buttressing and parts of the maltstore walls. Four arches (now blocked) in the south wall enabled access to a former timber wharf backing onto the creek for loading malt onto barges for its coastal transportation to the London breweries. Assessment: Subsequent use of the maltings for light industry has, as is frequently the case, removed almost all of the building's technological information. As such the maltings, although largely extant and readable, can be assessed as a locally significant building, given the extent of loss and conversion of similar buildings within the region. The entire range is suffering from subsidence, principally due to poor ground conditions associated with the its location so close to the creek, and as such needs extensive and potentially costly underpinning to secure its future. Residential or mixed use conversion now seems the only financially viable route to achieve this, however if this is not implemented then the maltings will either collapse or be demolished. <3>