Sandars of Gainsborough

Sandars (Gainsborough Malting Company), Gainsborough, Lincolnshire

They supplied malt to Tetley's brewery. Taken over by Pauls in 1969.

MALTING IN GAINSBOROUGH SANDARS' BRIDGE STREET MALTINGS by Adam Menuge and Colum Giles

Sandars Maltings was recorded in August 1992 by the Threatened Buildings Section of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. The report and plan were prepared by Adam Menuge and Colum Giles with photography by Keith Findlater. All text, photographs and line drawings remain (C) RCHME Crown Copyright. The full report (NBR No. 61387) may be consulted at the National Buildings Record.

Summary

Sandars Maltings (NGR: SK 814 892) is a large brick-built complex lying between Bridge Street and the east bank of the River Trent. Its history illustrates the rise and decline of floor malting in Gainsborough over two centuries. The present complex represents the amalgamation into a single unit of what were probably a number of separate properties in different uses originally. The two earliest buildings on the site probably date from the late 17th or early 18th century. They are: Building 1 (see block plan for building numbers), a two storey warehouse consisting of two parallel ranges end on to the river and sharing a common spine wall; and Building 2, a fragment of a two storey building, probably domestic in origin. Building 3, a three-bay house of three storeys plus attics, probably dates from the second quarter of the 18th century.

The earliest surviving evidence for malting on the site is a large four storey maltings, incorporating a kiln at its south end and probably dating from the late 18th century (Building 4). This was constructed along the river frontage, abutting the earlier warehouse at its north end.

Circa 1840 the original maltings was widened, and additional malting capacity provided in both an east-west range (Building 5) abutting the east wall of the kiln, and in a further riverside range (Building 6a) north of the original warehouse. This north range was extended eastwards to the Bridge Street frontage shortly afterwards (Building 6b). A second kiln (Building 7), incorporating part of Building 2, may be contemporary. These developments created a small yard, accessible only to pedestrians via a passage which passed through the second kiln on the north side of the furnace.

In about 1900 a third kiln was built within the double pile house (Building 3), and a narrow block (Building 8) added against its east side with taking-in doors to the street.

Report

Introduction

The malting industry processes barley so as to produce the malt necessary for the brewing of beer, brewers always accounting for all but a small fraction of the English industry's output. Maltsters are documented in Gainsborough from 1615 onwards, but it was not until the late 18th century that the industry began to expand rapidly and large-scale concerns began to appear. A 1792 directory listed just one maltster; six were listed in 1805 and eleven in 1856. Thereafter numbers fell gradually as a result of amalgamations to ten in 1869, eight in 1872, and just two from 1892 until the 1950s.

Thomas H Chafer, 'Economic and Social Development of Gainsborough' (unpublished MA dissertation, University of Sheffield, 1956), pp.146-47. The figures for maltsters at the beginning of this period probably exclude many, such as small publican-brewers, for whom malting was a small-scale or secondary activity.

The 18th and 19th century expansion of malting in Gainsborough parallelled (on a smaller scale) developments at Newark higher up the River Trent. Structural changes in the Midlands brewing industry, and agricultural improvement in Norfolk (allowing good quality barley to be harvested from sandy soils hitherto considered barren) may be among the root causes of the expansion, assisted by improvements in the transport infrastructure of the region. As early as the 17th century, at a period when the output of most breweries did not penetrate beyond their immediate locality, Derby, Nottingham and Burton beers had established a reputation for quality in the distant London market. Crucial to this pattern of trade (which in the later 18th century expanded to include a significant export market for beer in the Baltic) was the River Trent. This was made navigable upstream as far as Burton circa 1699, though the problems of navigation on the upper Trent were not fully overcome until the opening of the Trent and Mersey Canal in the 1770s. In the pre-railway age rivers, canals and coastal shipping afforded carriage rates for bulk commodities well below the costs of land carriage. By the same token, the existence of the Trent and its associated waterways allowed the brewers to seek farther afield for supplies of malt and hops. Gainsborough (like Newark) was ideally placed between the major Midlands brewing towns and the barley producing counties of Norfolk and Lincolnshire, with both of which it was linked by inland waterways.

Peter Mathias,The Brewing Industry in England 1700-1830 (Cambridge, 1959), pp.173-89 and 387-404.

The Firm of Sandars and Sons, Maltsters

Sandars Maltings is thought to have been established in the 1790s by Samuel Sandars (d.1835), a corn merchant who accumulated large profits during the Napoleonic Wars. He lived at Bridge House (2, Lea Road) where there is another maltings, and where the firm's offices were still located in the 1950s.

L K Shepheard, 'The Growth and Development of Gainsborough', unpaginated typescript in Gainsborough Local Studies Library (n.d.); Rev C Moor, History of Gainsborough (Gainsborough, 1904), p.274; Chafer, loc. cit

It is possible that Samuel Sandars' original business was based at the Lea Road Maltings. However, he had certainly acquired the Bridge Street site by 1831.

Pigot & Co.'s National Commercial Directory for 1830 lists 'Samuel Sandars, Ashcroft & Bridge St'; White's Nottinghamshire Directory for 1844 lists 'Samuel Sandars & Sons, Bridge St' (p.763).

Probably shortly after this date the Bridge Street premises were significantly expanded. A contemporary history of Gainsborough states:

At no great distance from the Pillar'd House [formerly about 100m to the north on Bridge Street] there has lately been erected by Messrs. Sandars, one of the largest malt kilns and warehouses in the county, occupying nearly a quarter of an acre of ground, and capable of holding fully 20,000 quarters of corn. It is well worth examination".

The importance of the complex at this date can be gauged from the fact that the total quantity of corn annually malted in Gainsborough was estimated at about 50,000 quarters. The greater part of this total was accounted for by 35,000 quarters of Norfolk barley brought by river and canal.

Adam Stark, History and Antiquities of Gainsburgh [sic] (London, 1843), pp.524 and 604. A quarter (eight bushels) of corn is equivalent to approximately 291 litres.

Water carriage was also important for the distribution of the finished product: by the 1830s the firm was selling most of the malt it produced to brewers in Liverpool and Manchester.

Jonathan Brown, Steeped in Tradition: The malting industry in England since the railway age (Reading, 1983), p.41.

The evolution of the Bridge Street site clearly illustrates the importance of waterborne trade and the advantage of an extended river frontage.

The family firm expanded rapidly in the mid-19th century, absorbing a number of smaller concerns, and had become a limited company by 1869. While the Bridge Street site may have formed the centre of its operations, the company office remained in Lea Road, and further kilns were in use on other sites.

The Gainsborough. Retford and District Directory for 1897 lists 'Sandars & Co, maltsters, 4 Lea road; kilns, Carr Lane' (p.58).

In the early 20th century the firm continued to prosper, acquiring maltings in Manchester (on the Ship Canal) and Grimsby, both sited to take advantage of supplies of imported barley.

Chafer, pp.146-49.

The Bridge Street site ceased operating in the 1980s.

The Earliest Buildings

Sandars Maltings occupies a riverside site between the historic core of Gainsborough to the north, and the bridge across the Trent (1787-91, replacing a ferry) to the south. Examination of Drake's 1747 view of Gainsborough, and comparison with Ibbetson's 1853 map of the town and the 1886 Ordnance Survey 1:500 map, suggest that prior to the large-scale redevelopments of the late 18th and 19th centuries, properties lying between Bridge Street and the River Trent were generally long and thin in shape and aligned east-west at right angles to the river and street. The two earliest buildings at Sandars Maltings appear to conform to this pattern, and it is therefore possible that they originated on distinct holdings and were only later brought into the same ownership.

Building 1, the larger of the two early buildings, probably originated as a warehouse. It consists of two parallel ranges divided by a common spine wall, and extends westwards from Bridge Street back to the river front. It is constructed in English bond brick with ground floor walls two and a half bricks thick, thinning back by half a brick at first floor level. As originally built it was of two storeys, possibly with attics. The existence of the spine wall suggests the probability of two parallel roofs. The first floor is carried by transverse oak beams. There is fragmentary evidence of blocked windows in the south wall, but insufficient to recover the fenestration pattern. The west end wall (facing the river) has been removed in the course of later additions. The surviving east wall has evidence for two tiers of three taking-in doors (now in-filled); the ground and first floor doors of each tier appear to be original. This would suggest a double gabled or hipped elevation to the street, which may have been repeated on the lost river elevation.

The evidence of the taking-in doors, taken with the size and proportions of the building and its riverside location suggest that it was originally built as a warehouse, probably not later than the early 18th century. Gainsborough's economic importance in the 17th and 18th centuries derived from its position on the tidal Trent, where goods could be trans-shipped from the larger vessels of the tidal river to the smaller vessels on the navigation upstream. Drake's 1747 view of Gainsborough shows a series of one and a half and two and a half storey buildings with gables onto the river, some of which were probably warehouses, though precise identification with the present structure is difficult.

Building 2 is the surviving fragment of a two storey building of late 17th or early 18th century date. It is constructed in irregular bond brick on a slight plinth. It has a tumbled gable onto the street and there is evidence for a projecting eaves course along its south wall. A blocked doorway in the east gable appears to be original. The original extent of the building is unclear, but it may have extended as far as the west wall of the present kiln (Building 7). The surviving portion of the interior (next to the street) is currently inaccessible. The modest proportions of the building probably indicate a domestic origin, and the fact that its east-west orientation conforms to the early property divisions posited above, taken with the evidence of the brickwork, suggests that it is no later than the first quarter of the 18th century.

Also facing the street, but set back from it slightly, Building 3 is house of three storeys plus attics probably dating from the second quarter of the 18th century. It is constructed in irregular bond brick with a double-span roof and tumbled gables. On the west wall there is evidence for segmental-arched windows, and part of a brick band survives at first floor level. The interior has been completely gutted, but the size and proportions of the building may imply a double pile plan of four rooms per floor. Drake's 1747 view shows a double pile house of three storeys in approximately the right position, which may indicate that the house was built by this date. If so, it was probably recently built, since it stands at the southernmost limit of the built-up area at that date.

The fact that the east roof has a wider span than the west probably implies that a former spine wall also divided each floor between wider east rooms and narrower west rooms, giving principal rooms on the street side. Ibbetson's 1853 map of Gainsborough and the 1886 OS 1:500 map both show semi-circular bow windows to the east front, the latter map also showing that these flanked steps to a central entrance. Given the extent of subsequent alterations, it is impossible to tell whether the bow windows were original to the house. Both original roofs survive south of the present east-west cross-wall. The wider east roof has pegged collar trusses carrying a single set of staggered butt purlins. The west roof consists of common rafters pegged at the apex, with occasional pegged collars corresponding to bay intervals in the east roof. The roof is currently of Welsh slate, but may have been pantiled originally, the comparatively light scantling of the timbers being appropriate for either material.

The Late 18th Century Maltings

In the second half of the 18th century large-scale redevelopment of the site appears to have erased former property divisions, allowing the creation of an extended river frontage within a single ownership. (By contrast, Drake's 1747 view does not show any large buildings parallel to the river.) A large four storey building (Building 4) was constructed beside the river, consisting of a ten bay maltings with a kiln at its south end, and abutting the earlier warehouse (Building 1) to the north. The west wall of the maltings and the four walls of the kiln survive (though the south wall of the kiln was partially rebuilt in the mid 20th century). Of the east wall of the maltings only a stub remains, projecting north of the kiln. This phase is characterised by brickwork in 1-3-1 English garden wall bond, and widely spaced segmental-arched windows fitted with shutters. The windows to the ground floor are smaller than elsewhere. This is consistent with it having served as the germinating floor, since germination required a moderate and even temperature and dark conditions. The upper floors would have been used for storage, either of unmalted barley or (following germination and kiln drying) malt. Two original wrought iron window grilles survive at third floor level in the remaining stub of the east wall, but elsewhere the fenestration appears to have been renewed circa 1840. There is an original tier of taking-in doors on the river (west) elevation. The floors are carried by transverse pine beams. The kiln, which has a hipped slate roof incorporating a louvre, has been gutted. The drying floor was at second floor level, with a doorway in the north wall communicating with the maltings. The position of the original steeping tank(s) is unclear. Typically, tanks were placed at the opposite end of the maltings from the kiln.

19th Century Expansion

In the second quarter of the 19th century, probably circa 1840, the capacity of the maltings was greatly expanded. It is probably this phase that was described as 'lately ... erected' in 1843 (see Section 2, above).

The figure of 'nearly a quarter of an acre' is difficult to reconcile with the existing buildings, which covered roughly three-quarters of an acre by the time of Ibbetson's 1853 map. Possibly it refers to the new buildings rather than the whole complex.

It is characterised by larger, more regular brick than earlier phases, laid in English garden wall bond (generally 1-3-1). Integral to the construction are iron tie-bars with circular spreaders. The roofs are of king-post construction with slender queen-struts and raked struts. The king-posts have expanded heads and bases and are through-bolted to the tie-beams. The ends of the tie-beams are strapped to the wall plates. The extensive bracing of these trusses is secondary. The present quarry-tiled floors incorporating metal hoppers are probably of early 20th century date, but the underlying floor structure may be original. This consists of gypsum plaster laid on straw, which in turn lies on laths supported by the joists.

The principal elements of the 19th century expansion can be summarised as follows. The 18th century maltings (Building 4) was widened on the east side and reroofed. The earliest surviving evidence for steeping tanks (on the north and east sides of the original kiln, and incorporating a gutter of perforated tiles) appears to be contemporary. Further four storey maltings were provided in a ten bay range (Building 5) extending east from the 18th century kiln and in a six-bay riverside range (Building 6a) extending north of the original warehouse. The lower courses of this latter addition are in 1-3-1 brickwork which appears to be of 18th century date, suggesting that it replaced an earlier building. The east wall incorporates windows which were blocked when a parallel range (Building 6b) was constructed between it and the road shortly afterwards. This addition is bonded externally in the same brick (suggesting the possibility of planned expansion) but is straight-jointed internally. Like the original maltings, the ground floor windows of the additions are smaller than those on upper floors, suggesting that germinating continued to be conducted on the ground floors only. The original warehouse (Building 1) was raised to four storeys in pier and panel walling and either rebuilt or extended slightly at the west end.

Probably at about the same time a second kiln (Building 7) was constructed partly in, and extending slightly north of, the two storey house. The kiln has been gutted, but evidence survives for a furnace below the drying floor with half-vaults to north and south. The constricted nature of the site led to the north half-vault serving as an access passage (wide enough for pedestrians only) from the street to a small inner yard which was otherwise closed off by the construction of the kiln.

All the above additions are shown on Ibbetson's 1853 map. This also shows what appear to be alterations of a non-domestic character to the interior of the double pile house (Building 3).

Around 1900 the double pile house was again altered. A kiln was constructed in the north half, the bow windows on the east side were removed, and a narrow addition (Building 8) was constructed in their place. This contains a stair and has a tier of taking-in doors from the street. The kiln has a pyramidal roof incorporating a louvre. It was integrated with the rest of the complex by the construction of a covered walk-way from the main riverside range at second floor level. By the mid 20th century it is likely that water carriage had diminished in importance. Improved loading facilities for lorries were provided at the north end of the complex, on the site of former buildings. Following the abandonment of floor malting in favour of pneumatic malting in the course of the 20th century, the buildings served primarily as grain stores for a number of years until their closure in the 1980s.