J R Page & Sons Malthouse at Baldock in Hertfordshire
J R Page & Sons Malthouse at Baldock in Hertfordshire
By Amber Patrick
Reproduced from Brewery History Society Newsletter, December 2022
In 1991 I was driving to East Anglia via Baldock and intending to look at the malthouse in Ashwell on the northern side of the railway line. On the southern side was this malthouse. On my return journey I made sure I took a look. Access was gained by permission of the company undertaking demolition. Limited time and safety precautions meant not all parts of the building were investigated. It is something I would not be able to do now. Additional information was obtained from a report in the Brewers' Journal.
The malthouse was built in 1895-1896 and was operational by March 1896. It was aligned more or less north to south with its north elevation fronting the railway line. It is shown on the 25 inch Ordnance Survey map revision of 1897, with a siding from the main line (GNR) Cambridge Branch from Hitchin and Cambridge. By the 1921 25 inch map revision there was a small additional building the western side of the malthouse which was not as long southwards as the original building and appeared to be fitted into an extended kiln section.
The Brewers' Journal gave a report on the construction of the maltings in its March issue of 1896. The malthouse was designed by the well-known malting firm of Arthur Kinder and Son. The contractor for the building was a Mr Foster of Hitchin. The cast iron columns, hopper bottomed steeps and kiln ironwork had been supplied by Messrs Gimson & Co of Leicester who were also responsible for all the services and pumps. The screening, carrying and hoisting machinery was supplied and fixed by the Ceres Ironworks, Kingston-on-Thames. All the machinery was driven by a 9 hp Otto gas engine. The report gave considerable detail on the working of the maltings and its use of elevators and conveyors. One point of particular note is the reference to barley sweating kilns. The barley and malt chambers had a storage capacity of about 10,000 quarters. (It is not clear whether this was the total storage capacity or for barley and malt individually).
Of note is the reference to the steeps having Kinder's improved valve for emptying them. The kilns were fitted with patent regulators and it is here that there is reference to the kilns being used for both sweating the barley and kilning the malt. Unfortunately, the kilns are not described other than that they were on the ‘most modern and approved principle and are of the special designs of Messrs Arthur Kinder & Son'. They used little coal (coke/anthracite) and the temperature could be easily controlled.
The reference to heat regulators implies H J H King regulators and this is confirmed by the 1906 and 1918 catalogues which also included an illustration of the kilns. They are described as 2-shaft kilns of 35 quarter capacity each. The illustration is particularly useful because it not only shows how the heat regulators worked but the position of the kiln drying floor and other features. The furnace was a vertical shaft one and the stoke hole was on the ground floor and above was the heat regulator, which was referred to as a ventilator. This was linked by a rod going up the side of the furnace shaft to a thermometer under the kiln drying floor. Above the ground floor furnace room was a malt storage floor which appears to have been supported on steel 'I' beams. Above this was the spark chamber, also supported on steel 'I' beams. This had a central dome over the top of the shaft and arms extending out almost to the outside wall. Above this was the kiln drying floor. It is relevant to note that there was only one floor. Unfortunately, there is no indication as to whether it was of wedge wire or perforated ceramic tiles. A later H J H King catalogue of 1934 shows that Pages had had their fans installed in their kilns, presumably at Baldock as this was a repeat order. By 1969-70 they had Suxé anthracite furnaces.
In 1920 the Brewers' Journal records that ‘Messrs J R Page & Son, The Maltings, Baldock Have disposed of their business which in future will be carried on as a private limited company with regular offices at St Neots ….' (Messrs Paine & Co Ltd). However, Kelly's Trade Directory for Hertfordshire of 1922 still records J R Page as Maltsters in Baldock. By 1969 they had become a wholly owned subsidiary of Paine &Co. They were still listed as Maltsters in the 1990 Brewery Manual with their address still given as c/o Paine & Co. It therefore seems likely that malting ceased not long before demolition.
The Buildings - Exterior
There were two blocks to the maltings, the main and original one was the larger, eastern one. The whole was brick built and all had slate roofs. The kilns were at the northern end, adjacent to the railway line. The later and smaller block was on the western side of the original building. It had a low and shallow pyramidal kiln roof. The construction of both was the same with regard to the brick work and the panel and pier construction.
They were of yellow brick with red brick segmental heads of two rows of header bricks to the windows, the lower part of the piers up to the sills of the first floor windows and two rows of red bricks at their tops which were at second floor lintel level and to the corners of the buildings. In the south elevations of both blocks, the piers rose to roof level. Apart from the red brickwork to the piers and the windows there was no decoration to the buildings.
The eastern malthouse was seen to be 14 bays in length and five in width. It had five storeys with three to the roof level, a fourth fully in the roof, and the fifth was a loft walkway. In all visible elevations there were windows in every bay to the ground and first floors and every other bay in the second floor. The windows had vertical metal bars. In the south elevation there was a hoist door in the centre bay of the third floor and windows in the bays on either side.
There were dormer windows with hipped slate covered roofs and on the eastern side there was a sort of hoist dormer with timber sides and a gable slate covered roof. Adjacent to the kiln was the elevator tower and what may have been the engine house tower to the west of it. The later western block was smaller of two storeys, nine bays in length and three in width with a window in every bay to both floors of the western elevation.
Interior
In the eastern block the germination floors were the bottom two and were concrete screed. There were two hopper bottomed cast iron steeps with their discharge sections onto both the ground and first floors. Thus each floor was served by one steep. There was not a maker's name on them but they were probably the original ones installed by Gimson. The upper floors were supported by robust cast iron columns supporting the steel beams. The floors had 14 columns along the length of the building and three across. There were wooden shutters for the windows.
The second floor was a storage floor with timber boxes. There was a narrow walkway down to the steep end of the building. The third floor also had storage boxes with a vertical ladder up to the walkway in the apex of the roof. This walkway gave access to the storage bins and the engine house at the kiln end of the building. The underside of the main roofs were lined with timber tongue and groove boarding.
The Kilns
There were two kilns at the northern end of the main malting block. They had steep pyramidal roofs. The kiln of the western block had a much shallower pyramidal roof. No cowls survived.
The interiors were completely gutted, but there was evidence of alterations, notably the kiln ceiling which was lower than would be expected from the exterior. It was lined, perhaps in association with the installation of the fans. Access to the kiln drying floor was from the second floor. The additional squat kiln which might have been a barley kiln had lost its furnace and drying floor but appeared to have a similar ceiling lining as the main kilns.
Amber Patrick