Pier Maltings

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 21 March 2025 to amend the name and address and to reformat the text to current standards

622/0/10024

PIER ROAD
Pier Maltings

(Formerly listed as Pier Maltings, 9-18 PIER ROAD)

30-JAN-07

II
Maltings c.1838 converted from Oil House of c.1807, extended and converted in C19 and C20. The building is constructed of coursed squared sandstone with ashlar quoins and dressings

PLAN: long rectangular main range of thirteen bays, extended to the rear with malt kilns forming right and left returns.

EXTERIOR: front (south) elevation to Pier Road. Thirteen bays and three storeys under a pitched roof of slate; eight original bays have a high chamfered plinth and later five bays have a less prominent single course low plinth. The dressings of the window and door openings differ on the original building and its extension; the former are of smooth ashlar while the latter are roughly tooled. Original first floor loading door occupies fifth bay with an inserted ground floor door below. The five bay extension contains a large segmental round headed opening with an inserted loading door above. Modern windows and external balcony occupy the third floor of the westernmost two bays and there is an inserted ground floor window and rectangular entrance. The left gable of the main range has two second floor windows and an original ground floor entrance. The right gable has single first and second floor windows and an original ground floor entrance with relieving arch above.

A malt kiln forms the east return with a pyramid roof and paired window openings and loadings doors now converted to windows. The ground floor has inserted double garage doors. A small two-storey two bay building, probably malt store, now converted to a dwelling, forms the end of the range; this has a blocked first floor gable loading door. A larger square four-storied malt kiln with paired windows at all levels and a conical roof of slate with vented apex forms the west return of the building.

Rear (north) elevation: formed by later three-storey range attached to rear of original range with modern roof covering and roof lights. It has scattered fenestration and several doorways to the rear.

INTERIOR: the interior of this building reflects its use as a maltings and retains evidence of at least two phases. It preserves evidence of the sites of two steeps and storage and malting floors are carried on a variety of cast iron and wooden columns. The interior of the kilns retain their characteristic cast iron floor beams. An inserted stair at the east end of the original building occupies the position of the original; the stair at the west end of the extended building is original. Several doors and trap doors of various dates throughout the building.

HISTORY: the eastern part of the present building appears on an 1822 map of Berwick, by John Wood described as Oil House. The presence of an oil yard manufacturing whale oil, is documented in Berwick between the years 1807 and 1837. Although this appears to have operated on the south side of the Tweed estuary, the building at Pier Road must have been connected to it in some way. The raised area to the rear of the maltings reportedly contains a very large number of whalebones. It is therefore likely that this building was associated with the production and/or storage of whale oil, and is therefore, an important building in the context of the whaling trade.

Analysis of the main building elevation confirms that the original eight bay oil house was extended westwards by an additional five bays; this had certainly occurred by publication of the Berwick Board of Health plan dated 1852 which shows that the extended building was by then Pier Head Malt House and its eastern kiln is present. It is likely that the original oil house was extended and converted to a maltings in c.1838 when its oil function ceased; this coincides with the selling off of one of Berwick's two whaling boats in 1838 which represents the winding up of the town's whaling interests. Map evidence also shows that between 1862 and 1898 the building received a three-storey extension to the rear and a second malt kiln was added to its western end. Recollections of an elderly Berwick resident suggest that the building remained as a maltings well into the 1920s and it has been the site for many years of a marquee business.

SOURCES: Tony Barrow, The Whaling Trade of North East England 2001
Jonathon Brown, Steeped In Tradition: The malting industry in England since the railway age. 1983. Amber Patrick, Strategy for the Historic Industrial Environment Report No 1 Maltings in England.

Summary of Importance:
This maltings of c.1838 was converted from an oil house of c.1807. It has special interest as a relatively rare example of a maltings, which retains external features such as kilns and internal features including the sites of steeps and malting floors. Its plan form is readable and all forms of the malting process can be identified in the exterior and interior survival. A thematic survey of maltings in England for English Heritage, has confirmed the importance of this example. The maltings conversion from an earlier oil house associated with the whaling trade enhances the special interest of the building as survivals are rare on a national level and the identification of this one associated with the well-documented Northeast whaling trade is significant. This building therefore meets the criteria for listing in a national context.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

502430

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Barrow, T, The Whaling trade of North East England, (2001)
Brown, J, Steeped in Tradition: the Malting Industry in England since the Railway Age, (1983)

End of official list entry

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