Halse Malthouse

Halse Malthouse

By Mary Miles

(From Brewery History Society Journal, no.50, December 1986)

Halse is a small village, some 11 miles north west of Taunton, and seven miles east of Wiveliscombe, in Somerset. The malt house is situated behind a house on the main street, and only a few yards from the village's sole public house, the New Inn. There is a narrow lane to the north giving access to vehicles.

The building is of a cruciform shape, with the main malting floors running north-south and a kiln at the south end. To the west is a loading bay, while to the east is a second kiln with a narrow lean-to running down the mainline of the building. Whilst this eastern kiln seems to be a later addition, it does not from its construction appear to be much later. The whole structure has some rather unusual features.

The tiles on the kiln floor are made of stone, with the holes tapering down to the fire below, instead of up as is usual in 19th century practice. It would seem from this that some sort of hair cloth or frame must have been placed over the tiles to stop barley from falling through into the fire below, as described in Thomas Hale's "A Compleat Body of Husbandry" in 1756. (19th century kilns had tiles made of clay or iron, with only tiny perforations on the surface.) The short stairs down to the kiln floors from the top storage floor can be lifted up on hinges to reveal shutes for shovelling malt down to the first floor of the malt house. On the ground floor, openings into the second kiln have covers on hinges, allowing them to be raised so that barley can be shovelled into a steep tank which runs around two sides of the east kiln fire. There is no sign of a steep tank at one end of a malting floor, or the usual 19th century wooden shutes for dropping barley from the store to the steep tank below. An odd system of piping water through a wall to the steep tank has allowed small basins (for washing hands?) to be set in two walls.

There is a date stone in the south wall - notorious things, as they may be replacements or simply indicate when renovation work was done: it reads "IH DW 1768". From the style of the lettering DW appears to be a later addition, but IH ties in with John Hancock, who is known to have been connected with the site. The roof structure in the main building, and the thickness of the walls suggest a date in the second half of the 18th century, so the date stone may indicate the true date of the building.

The link with the Hancock family seems to be right from the start. There are references to the family living in Halse from at least 1653. The earliest Land Tax Assessments (1766) show William, Thomas, Phillip and John all owning land, and from 1788 John Hancock's estate includes the public house with a tenant landlord. The earliest reference to the family malting comes in 1790, when John Hancock the Younger and his brother Richard are called maltsters in a deed. In 1803 John the Younger lists among items on an insurance list, (against the feared Napoleonic invasion) 50 bushels of malt. The Tithe map of 1840 clearly shows the site with the same outline as at present.

The owner is Richard Murford Hancock (who also owns the 'New Inn' - and is the son of the previous Richard), and the occupier is John. From the Tithe Apportionment it is obvious that the family were major landowners in the parish, with Halse House, Halse Water House and Stopford House among others, large tracts of land, and also owning some rectorial tithe. It also names the site as a malt house.

Local knowledge indicates that the building was last used as a malt house before the Second World War, since when it has as a battery house for chickens and an apple store. Four names recorded on the plaster of the south kiln with the date 1935 are recognised as being farm workers at Blake Farm, which was finally sold out of the Hancock family in 1948. This may signify one of the last times that the kiln was used as such.

It is thought that there is a connection with the Hancock family of Wiveliscombe, who later became important brewers in the county. The link may be through the marriage in 1767 between Henry Hancock of Wiveliscombe and Ann Hancock of Halse recorded in the Halse Marriage Registers. Despite this, and the proximity of Wiveliscombe, there is no direct evidence. William Hancock the Elder began his brewing business in 1806, behind his draper's shop at the top of the High Street, Wiveliscombe, supplying local public houses owned by himself and his lawyer brother Phillip. Within a year he had bought the site of his brewery on Golden Hill, demolished the cottages on it, and built a brewery and malt house there. It seems unlikely that the new malt house would supply all his needs, but a family link may well have given William the basic idea and impetus.

The Halse malt house would seem to have been capable of supplying a much larger quantity of malt than could be consumed by a publican brewing for his customers. As the family owned several large houses in the parish, it may be that the malt was also for their own personal use, and perhaps for their large numbers of servants and agricultural workers.

The main question posed by the malt house, is how far the features reflect those in general use in the 18th century. The author would be pleased to hear from anyone with information about similar features elsewhere. The stone kiln tiles have been found at a couple of other sites in Somerset - houses connected with a kiln or called "Malt House". The need for two kilns is baffling - possibly one was used for drying hops, as described in "Compleat Body of Husbandry", but no hop yard in the parish survived long enough to have been recorded on the Tithe map. Suggestions would be much appreciated.

Mary Miles

1986