Description on BreweryPedia - Brewerypedia is the database of the Brewery History Society.
Photos of brewerry / malthouse before conversion.
Malthouses in Northumberland
Northumberland cannot really be said to be a “malting county”, although there were several
maltings in the county, and Simpsons of Alnwick have their head quarters at Berwick-on-Tweed.
Both Alnmouth and Berwick upon Tweed were important grain ports and had a substantial
number of granaries in the 18th century. Berwick, together with adjacent Tweedmouth remained
an important grain port into the 19 th and even the 20 th century. Alnmouth, however, lost its
importance in 1806 when a storm changed the course of the river and the port became silted
up. Other granaries are to be found along the coastal strip between Newcastle and Berwick, but
despite the grain trade there was a surprisingly limited malting industry. The location of some
the county’s maltings at sites accessible to coasting vessels indicates that at least some of the
malt produced was for export. In the early 19th century the main towns where malt was
produced were Alnwick, Morpeth, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and North Shields. Newcastle had by
far the largest number of maltsters. A number of villages and smaller towns had one or two
maltsters. The numbers reduced steadily during the 19 th century, and by the end of the century
the main malting centres were Alnwick, Berwick and Newcastle. Malting continued into the 20th
century with Simpsons building a floor maltings at Tweedmouth Dock in 1904. Unfortunately it
was burnt down in the 1930s. Other maltings, in Newcastle, operated into the 20 th century.
Much of the malt produced was for the county’s brewing industry, in particular Newcastle.
Few early malthouses survive, but one example is a late 18th
/early 19 th century example at the
Brewery (Listed Grade 2) at Tweedmouth, on the old A1. For the 19 th century the most
noteworthy surviving examples are to be found at Berwick, on Pier Road, and in Alnwick there
is a good example on Dispensary Street (Listed Grade 2), and finally another good example is
to be found at South Shields, Tanners Bank.
Perhaps surprisingly, small malthouses do not appear to be found on the large and substantial
farms of Northumberland. The rural maltings were associated more with water mills. One
example is to be found at Waren Mill. Part of the buildings are 18th century, but it would seem
unlikely that malting was carried on at the site as early as that. A date stone records the history
of the complex and refers to a fire in 1881. The building was restored in 1883 and by 1924 the
maltings was complete. Whether this means that the malting was only a 20th century addition to
an 18th/19th century mill is not clear. Other examples of mills with maltings attached are to be
found at Felton, and Ford.
The main building material for Northumberland’s maltings is the local sandstone. The
malthouses were usually constructed of coursed rubble with dressed stones at the corners and
sometimes substantial dressed stone cills and lintels to the windows. The roofing material of the
later malthouses is slate, and prior to that pantiles. The malthouses are generally without
embellishment.
Number of listed malthouses in the county: 4 (includes one in Tyne and Wear)
ASSESSMENT OF THE NATIONAL POSITION AND THE MANAGEMENT OF THE RESOURCE
Includes Robertson's Pant