Former Malt House to Rear of No. 59

Reasons for Designation

The former malt house at the rear of 59 Market Place, probably built as a C17 or early C18 outbuilding, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * an early and rare survival of a building at the rear of a burgage plot retaining physical evidence of its use in the malting or hop-drying process; * unusual use of a timber-frame structure adapted for such a process; * exceptionally good documentary evidence of malting and hop-drying relating to the plot; * significance in the history of this major industry in Henley.

Details

HENLEY ON THAMES

696/0/10040 MARKET PLACE 09-DEC-09 Former Malt House to rear of no. 59

GV II Former malt house, probably C17 to early C18 adapted for use as part of the maltings or hop-drying process which continued on the site until 1877 when it was adapted as a garden outbuilding.

MATERIALS: Upper C17 or early C18 timber frame with slightly curved wall braces, some timber reused especially on the east and north walls. The frame is in-filled with brick nogging and underbuilt up to first floor level in flint with brick piers. Weather-boarded north gable wall, plain tile pitched roof.

PLAN: Two bays with an inserted floor in the southern bay and a conical timber kiln roof in the northern bay, contained under the pitched roof. Later C19 entrances at lower level in the west and east elevations. (The west elevation was formerly built against the plot boundary wall).

EXTERIOR: Timber framed and brick-nogged upper walls have inserted late C19 to C20 window openings on the south and west elevations with C20 windows. There are no window openings on the east or northern elevations. On the east elevation is a later C19 board door with strap hinges which cuts into the timber frame. A later dooway has been cut into the west wall.

INTERIOR: The building has a clasped purlin wind-braced roof with a pair of vertical curved braces rising from the collar of the central truss. Within the roof space the northern bay has a lightly constructed conical timber roof presumed to be a small kiln roof. The southern bay has an inserted floor of reused timber. The transverse beam and joists are reset upside down, with stave slots on the underside of the beam and chamfers on the upper side of the beam and joists. Joists rest on stone pads set into the flint wall. A timber gallery extends into the northern bay, constructed after industrial use had ceased. There is evidence of former studs between the horizontal timbers of the central truss, indication of a former partition.

HISTORY: Henley has a long history associated with malting and hop-drying. Malting was practised on a scale similar to the process described by Gervase Markham, author and commentator, in the early C17. Maltings were laid out at the rear of burgage plots, similar to the buildings which survive at the rear of 18 Hart Street, Henley, and as shown on the 1877 conveyancing plan for nos. 55, 57 and 59 Market Place. Typically the kiln was attached to the rear of the house, with maltings laid out behind. According to Dr Plot, quoted in 1861 in the History of Henley by John S Burn, kilns were sometimes fuelled by the same fire that served the kitchen.

Documents relating to nos. 55, 57 and 59 Market Place refer to a malt house as early as 1690; in 1737 a hop kiln was also mentioned while later documents record land including hop fields in the same ownership or tenancy. The conveyance of 1877, when the Baptist Church acquired the plot, gives details of the range of buildings which formed the maltings at the rear of nos. 55 and 57 but gives the malt house as belonging to Miss Townsend who owned 59 Market Place. The following year all but this remaining buildings were demolished and the land to the north of it was levelled, leaving the floor level of the northern end of the surviving building below the current ground level.

The 1878 OS map shows a greenhouse or conservatory attached to the southern end of the building, strongly indicating that it was no longer in use as a kiln by this date. In recent years it has been used as an artist's studio.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The former malt house at the rear of 59 Market Place, probably built as a C17 or early C18 outbuilding is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * an early and rare survival of a building at the rear of a burgage plot retaining physical evidence of its use in the malting or hop-drying process; * unusual use of a timber-frame structure adapted for such a process; * exceptionally good documentary evidence of malting and hop-drying relating to the plot; * significance in the history of this major industry in Henley.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

507242

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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