Elms Farm Maltings, Wangford

A small malting operated by Crisps

Elms Farm, Wangford, Suffolk

By Amber Patrick

(Reproduced from Brewery History Society Newsletter, September 2024)

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  The interior of the kiln
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  The kiln from the germination floor

I only visited this maltings during December 1998, the farm and the malthouse were no longer in the same ownership and much of the malthouse buildings were obscured by vegetation and debris. Subsequent reuses of the buildings made it difficult to understand the interior. Today the malthouse, its kiln and the attached buildings have now been converted to residences.

The malthouse runs parallel to the road and is north east of the village of Wangford (East Suffolk). The A12 passes to the north west. Elms Farm and the adjacent malthouse were part of the Stradbroke Estate and as such the malthouse was built by them, and was later operated by the Crisps. It is worth noting that Pigot’s 1830 Trades Directory of Norfolk and Suffolk recorded a William Crisp as brewer and maltster in Southwold located some three miles to the south east but also where the church benefice was the gift of the Earl of Stradbroke. John Crisp junior was recorded as maltster at Victoria Street, Southwold in Kelly’s Suffolk Directory of 1858 as well as Beccles and Wangford by 1879. The Post Office Directory of 1869 for Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk records John Crisp & Sons as maltsters at Beccles as well as Wangford. It is perhaps also relevant to note that in the 1858 Directory a J. D. Eastaugh was listed as a maltster at The Elms, Wangford, so perhaps at that date Crisps were not operating it. Kelly’s 1900 Directory notes a Christopher Robert Smith at The Elms, Wangford but not as a maltster. No maltster was noted in Wangford at this date, and it is probable that the building had ceased to be used for producing malt by then.

The current owner in 1998 remembered that the maltings buildings were being used for agricultural purposes before the War. He also observed that the level of the adjacent pond, on the south side of the road had resulted in the bottom of the maltings being rather damp. He also indicated that the bricks for the malthouse may have been made at Frosden.

The buildings

There were three elements to the building: the malthouse fronting the road; its kiln at the western end and an extension running north from the kiln. Thus the whole building is L shaped. There is some indication that the northward extension was built first, probably as a farm building (barn). It would appear that the kiln and the road facing malthouse were subsequent builds. It is just possible that the northward extension to the kiln was an original and much smaller maltings, and that the road arm was built when increased malting capacity was required, but the surviving fenestration in the northward extension did not support this.

The maltings is a two storey building constructed of brick and had roofs of sheet metal whereas the northward extension had a pantile roof covering. At the opposite end of the maltings was a small single storey brick extension abutting the northern half of the east end wall. It was not clear what its roof covering was as it was partly collapsed and covered in vegetation.

The most noticeable features in the short east elevation were four round tie bar bosses at roof level and on either side of the gable. The bottom pair were at the level of an upper loft floor window’s segmental head. The roof was pedimented by a continuous row of header bricks laid on a row of stretcher bricks.

The malthouse was eleven bays in length along its south, road facing elevation. There were windows in every other bay, on the ground floor, but there were just two windows to the first floor. The windows had timber louvres but these may not have been original. There were five round tie bar bosses at first floor level. Under the roof eaves was decoration in the form of a dentil brick course. There was a door to the first floor towards the eastern end of the building.

The rear or northern elevation had been substantially altered in that two large doorways had been cut through at both ground and first floor levels, although there was an original door at the eastern end on the ground floor. The round tie bar bosses visible on the south elevation were also visible on the north.

Interior

The bottom floor was for germination and had been much altered when it was used for farming activities. The original floor surface was brick and the steeping cistern was at the eastern end of the building and in its southern corner. It could be identified by the remains of its cement render lining. The source of the water for steeping was not clear. Probably not the pond on the other side of the road. At the opposite end to the steep was the kiln and there appears to have been a window-sized hatch for throwing the green malt up onto the kin drying floor.

The first floor of the malthouse had been removed, although its main beams survived and the joist holes of its floor were visible. There was a door from it onto the kiln drying floor. There was a party wall between the malthouse and the kiln. The base of the kiln’s pyramidal roof was lower than the top of this wall. The roof structure may be described as a sort of post and pad. Certainly it gave a good space for the first floor and was typically used in granaries and similar buildings.

Kiln

The kiln was square and constructed of brick but they were two inch bricks and there was a row of cogged/dog tooth brick work as decoration under the eaves of the pyramidal roof. No cowl survived. There were two ties.

On the southern road elevation there was a door opening at upper floor level. Access to the bottom floor was via a narrow door in the centre of the west elevation. To the north side of this door was a blocked narrow window aperture. There did not appear to have been a similar one to the south of the main door. At first floor level there was a course of stretcher bricks forming a sort of boundary or floor level to the northern seven eighths of the width of the kiln. The brickwork above was clearly defined by more pronounced pointing. This change in brickwork was indicative of either a rebuilding of the kiln or a later upwards extension. In the centre and so above the main door was a tallish bricked in rectangular window.

There was a fairly steep step down to the ground floor level from the outside. The ground floor of the kiln was of brick. There was no specific evidence for the furnace although there was some stonework which might have been its base. However, it is also possible it was an open fire basket furnace and so there would have been no real evidence for its existence on the ground. On the northern side were two square iron columns which stood on short brick piers and this may support the possibility that the furnace was just a fire basket. It could have been stoked from the outside.

The columns rose up to an iron beam from which four iron brackets were hanging down from the kiln drying floor and it is possible these may have supported a suspended spark plate. The beams from which the brackets were hanging supported the iron grid on which the perforated ceramic kiln tiles rested. The tiles appeared to be standard 12 inch (0.30m) square Stanley Bros tiles. When viewed from the underside most of the tiles looked surprisingly clean perhaps indicating that the kiln had been little used after they were laid and that the existing kiln drying floor had replaced an older one. This was further indicated by the survival of an older tile of seven large holes topside to a relatively small roundel underside. It was red in colour and may have been locally produced.

The north extension building

This extension, like the rest of the buildings was constructed of brick and may have been another malting wing. However, the fenestration was not indicative of this and it is more likely that it was a farm building, specifically a hay barn and this is probably confirmed by a diamond shaped ventilator aperture of alternate bricks in the west elevation. It would appear to have a different build date as there appeared to be a straight line joint between it and the kiln, perhaps over emphasised as a result of aggressive repointing. It was of two storeys and had a pantile roof. The likelihood is that it predated the malthouse and kiln.

In the west elevation just to the north of the kiln building was a cruciform tie bar boss at the height of the lintel to the doorway to the immediate north of it but between these two was a vertical iron tie. The door was a plain plank one. To the north of this door was a timber framed and louvred window. The elevation appeared to be of broad panel and pier construction. There was decorative brickwork under the eaves in the form of a dentil course between string courses. The upper half of the east elevation was painted black or tarred, perhaps as a form of waterproofing with a single window to the first floor.

The interior showed that originally there had been easy communication with the kiln. At ground floor level there was a blocked opening into the kiln furnace room. One of the ground floor windows in the west elevation had horizontal timber bars like louvres either side of a central timber mullion. In contrast the window to the east elevation had three timber mullions. The first floor was supported by substantial beams which had knee type support brackets in the walls. The beams supported a timber floor resting on substantial joists. From the first floor there was door access to the kiln drying floor.

In conclusion, this small maltings does appear to have been operated by Crisps. Compared with some of their other later ones, notably that in Beccles it was very small. That may be the reason why it did not operate for long. It was a small two storey maltings, with the steep and kiln at opposite ends of a type so often found associated with farms.

Amber Patrick