Building record RGV 060 - The Maltings at Street Farm, Redgrave

A derelict and partly collapsed brick and pantiled range to the rear of the farmhouse. By the 1880s it no longer appears to have been used as a Malthouse. It was used as a barn in the 20th century and an unusual number of original features have been preserved. The majority of the structure was built in red brick during the early 19th century and reflects the standard layout of a contemporary maltings with a steeping tank against its southern gable and a kiln to the north. The building contains an integral rear isle and the binding joists if the malting floor, which is accessible only by an external stair, are supported on a series of brick piers. Its original louvered window, vertically hinged shutters, brick floor, steeping tank, soild-treader stair and reddled internal walls have escaped the alteration and modernisation usually encountered in industrial structures of this kind. The square kiln is all that remains of an earlier timber-framed maltings on the same site that was broadly contemporary with the farmhouse. The eaves were raised in the 19th century to match those of the reconstruction and its roof was rebuilt with a funnel shaped inner ceiling rising to a central vent, but its original fabric probably survives from the late 16th century. Its walls consist of jowled corner posts with externally trenches braces and evidence of a window containing three diamond mullions in the northern gable. There were no studs beneath the mid rails and its walls were probably open sided to contain the open fires beneath 'hair cloth' or sacking. This open-sided arrangement was later remodelled in brick before furnaces with stoke holes were inserted in the 19th century. As a purpose built Tudor kiln this structure is probably a unique national survival and is of major historic importance (S1).