The Bass Maltings in
Sleaford
Sleaford is a market town and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. Centred on the former parish of New Sleaford, the modern boundaries and urban area include Quarrington to the south-west, Holdingham to the nor ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
are a large group of eight disused
malt house
A malt house, malt barn, or maltings, is a building where cereal grain is converted into malt by soaking it in water, allowing it to sprout and then drying it to stop further growth. The malt is used in brewing beer, whisky and in certain food ...
s originally owned by the
Bass Brewery
The Bass Brewery () was founded in 1777 by William Bass in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The main brand was Bass Pale Ale, once the highest-selling beer in the UK. By 1877, Bass had become the largest brewery in the world, with ...
of
Burton upon Trent
Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. In 2011, it had a population of 72,299. The ...
. Constructed between 1901 and 1907 to Herbert A. Couchman's design, the maltings are the largest group of malt houses in England;
they have been designated Grade II* on the
National Heritage List for England
The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...
, recognising them as "particularly important ... of more than special interest."
Part of the predominantly agricultural county of
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...
, the Sleaford area was a major producer of
barley
Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...
in the 1880s. When germinated and dried to form
malt, barley forms a key ingredient in the production of
beer
Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...
. Along with the town's railway links, this attracted the Bass brewery company to the town. The use of more efficient techniques at Bass's other plant led to the closure of Sleaford's maltings in 1959. Despite being used to rear poultry in the late 20th century, the buildings have not been fully occupied since Bass left and a fire in 1976 caused severe damage to three of the malthouses. Derelict since the 1990s, proposals to convert the buildings into office, retail and residential space were put on hold in early 2015 after lengthy delays over planning permission and the withdrawal of a major investor.
History
Industry and vacancy
In the late-19th century, the Sleaford area was a major
barley
Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...
producer and by the 1880s, Sleaford was a stop on railway lines connecting the town to
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Grantham
Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...
,
Bourne,
Spalding and
Lincoln
Lincoln most commonly refers to:
* Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States
* Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England
* Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S.
* Lincol ...
.
These qualities made the town desirable for the production of
malt, a crucial ingredient in
beer
Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...
production. The brewers
Bass, Ratcliffe and Gretton Ltd were attracted to the town and in 1880 proposed a new malting complex there, which would consolidate malting closer to the barley source and reduce costs by up-scaling production.
Drilling in 1892 revealed suitable
artesian water sources under Sleaford; plans were submitted nine years later and over 13 acres of land off
Mareham Lane was purchased; work started in 1901 and was complete by 1907.
The company ran the complex at full capacity until after the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
; however, in the 1950s, Bass installed new and more efficient pneumatic malting systems at their original
Burton-on-Trent
Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. In 2011, it had a population of 72,299. Th ...
plant, making the Sleaford complex redundant and paving the way for its closure in 1959.
Vacant space was let to businesses, but the enormous complex was only ever partially occupied after Bass left. Vulnerable to damage and poorly maintained, fires started in 1969 and 1976, the latter resulting in major damage to three of the malthouses.
Some of the space was used for chicken-rearing by G. W. Padley (Property) Ltd. from 1973 into the 1990s.
Regeneration
A regeneration scheme was announced in 2004; supported by the Phoenix Trust, the maltings would be converted into residential, retail and business space. Public consultation took place in 2005 and 2006, with around 90% of participants supporting regeneration and three-quarters asking for a cinema and entertainment complex. Lincolnshire Enterprise granted £200,000 towards the regeneration scheme and the Gladedale Group came forward to develop the project. Over the next three years, they worked with
the Prince's Regeneration Trust
The Prince's Foundation (formerly the Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture until 2001, the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment until 2012, and the Prince's Foundation for Building Community until 2018) is an educational charity est ...
to draw up plans for the site's regeneration which protected the historic exterior.
In 2009, their proposals were submitted for planning permission.
North Kesteven District Council
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north'' is ...
approved the £50 million development in 2011;
Tesco
Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
was also granted permission to build a £20 million supermarket as part of the redevelopment.
The maltings would be converted into retail and office space, alongside 220 apartments.
However, in 2012, Sleaford Town Council refused to grant permission for a link road connecting Boston Road to the site because of "concerns about closing a level crossing and the loss of trees" at the Boston Road Recreation Ground. After a lengthy stalemate, the District Council served a compulsory purchase order on the site in 2014, but Tesco announced early the following year that it would no longer be investing in the maltings complex following a series of financial setbacks to the company.
Although Gladedale (by then known as Avant Homes) announced its commitment to converting parts of the site to residential use, the leader of North Kesteven District Council, Marion Brighton, stated that the plans were "effectively on hold" following the withdrawal of Tesco.
Architecture
![A Small Part of a Large Complex - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/A_Small_Part_of_a_Large_Complex_-_geograph.org.uk_-_561555.jpg)
The maltings were constructed to designs by Herbert A. Couchman, Bass & Co.'s chief engineer.
Built in red brick with Welsh slate roofing, the complex follows a rectangular plan along an east–west orientation: a central four-storey water tower is flanked by four malthouses. Behind the tower is a tall, octagonal chimney. The malthouses are identical in design and layout; barley was fed into a granary section, before being moved onto the germination floors and eventually transported to one of the twin kilns, where malting took place. Their southern fronts consisted of a six-storey building of five bays with a gable spanning three windows that faces the other ranges. Projecting northwards is a ten-bay section of four-storeys which formed the germination floors.
With a frontage of nearly 1,000 ft
and a total area of 50,000 sq ft, the maltings complex is believed to be largest of its type in England;
the architectural historians Sir
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...
and
John Harris commented that "for sheer impressiveness little in English industrial architecture can equal the scale of this building.
In 1974, it was recorded in the
National Heritage List for England
The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...
as a designated Grade II* listed building in recognition of its importance as an example of a large-scale industrial malting complex in which "considerations of form, massing, symmetry and scale have produced a design of high aesthetic quality combined with clear functional expression"; it also represents the importance of the English brewing industry in the late-19th and early 20th centuries and large-scale malting at its peak.
Owing to its derelict state, the building was also placed on English Heritage's "
Heritage at Risk
An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for actio ...
" register in 2011.
There are five workers' cottages along the path from Mareham Lane to the industrial site; each are Grade II listed. The complex's offices, storage depot, weigh offices, cartsheds, gateways, walls and mess rooms are also listed at the same grade.
[Historic England. Nos. 1389336 through 1389340. ''National Heritage List for England''. Retrieved 16 April 2015.]
See also
*
Listed buildings in Sleaford
References
;Bibliography
*
*
{{Authority control
Grade II* listed buildings in Lincolnshire
Industrial buildings completed in 1907
Sleaford