THE MALTING TRADE
THE GROWTH OF THE TRADE
Although malting for local consumption was commonplace it seems that by the early 17th century, and probably before, Baldock, along with Hitchin, Ashwell, Royston and Stortford were engaged in a more extensive trade supplying malt to London. Although the trade at that time was largely in the hands of small scale maltsters “of mean ability”, by the following century the quality of the barley grown in northern and eastern Hertfordshire and the skill of the maltsters in producing the slightly scorched brown malts needed for the newly popular beer known as ‘porter’ had largely captured the London trade so that Hertfordshire malt sold at a premium.
As the London porter breweries expanded into huge enterprises during the second half of the 18th century so the demand for Hertfordshire malt grew and Baldock’s maltsters were among the leading producers. By 1791 the town was noted “for making excellent malt and the quantity made being exceeded but by one town in the kingdom.” That town was Ware, which was not only the largest malt making town but was also the destination of much of the Hertfordshire malt, including malt from Baldock, which was loaded on barges to be taken to London on the River Lee. The town’s maltings also supplied local breweries too.
Two of the older maltings premises in Baldock.
ABOVE:
The rear of Musgrove Maltings on Park Street.
RIGHT:
The yard of White Lion Maltings in Mansfield Road
Two of the maltings improved during the 19th century
LEFT:
Roe’s Maltings in the High Street
BELOW:
The New Maltings in Weston Way in the aftermath of a cyclone in 1875
A very old malting kiln house in Hitchin Street. Notice the
heavy beam at about head height across the front with a series
of tie plates along its length. These fixed tie-bars through to
the other side of the building which supported the heavy iron
mesh kiln floor above the furnace.
DECLINING FORTUNE
Hertfordshire malts lost their pre-eminence during the 19th century as the London brewers began to use paler malts from other parts of the country for brewing porter and later to brew the increasingly popular pale ales. However the sheer scale of the London brewing industry meant that there was still a huge demand for malt and the Hertfordshire maltsters sought to meet that demand by building bigger and more modern maltings. Baldock was quickly overtaken in the trade by more conveniently sited large modern maltings in the east of the county.
Several of the maltings in the town were very old timber framed buildings. Some were demolished and replaced by new brick-built maltings during the 19th century. In addition, the ‘New Maltings,’ a complex of three maltings, was built beside New Farm on Weston Way early in the century and the largest of all, ‘Pages Maltings’, was built in the 1890s on the Royston Road. By that time it was said that the trade “was not so great as formerly, but still considerable.”
The trade declined in Baldock during the 20th century. New processes had been developed and the remaining traditional floor maltings still operating in the town finally closed during the 1950s leaving only the large maltings on the Royston Road.
ABOVE: Page’s Maltings in Royston Road was built alongside the railway and had its own siding to bring coke or anthracite for its kilns and to transport its malt. It continued working until the 1980s and was destroyed in a fire in 1992.