Sleaford Bass Maltings
One of those days when you find yourself with exploration withdrawal symptoms and it's too late to find a partner in grime.
So I decided to take the short drive to sleaford solo to check out this huge complex. I was "going in dry" so to speak, with only
some google maps printouts, a ginsters pasty, a scotch egg, and a determined mind. A little bit of fog helped maintain ninja infiltration,
a mental note was made to add kevlar shreddies to my kit. For those of you that have been here before, you'll know that it's a bit of a
ball-ache (literally) due to the fact that each of the eight massive buildings are sectioned off from each other resulting in a lot of
climbing in and out mid-explore. Despite this, I thoroughly enjoyed having a mooch around here for about 5 hours, the spiral
staircase room and the tower above is obviously one of the main attractions, and the upper floors of the fire damaged buildings
require the use of your little ballerina shoes
The history
The years of beer :beer: :beer2:
Designed specifically to facilitate three key stages in the production of beer, the Sleaford Bass
Maltings represent both a practical and architecturally pleasing group of buildings.
Covering a geographical area of just over 13 acres, and comprising some 500,000 sq ft of floor space,
the Sleaford Bass Maltings cost around £350,000 to complete. Standing against a backdrop of flat
landscape, this impressive complex can be seen for many miles, its eight massive malt houses,
central water tower, and tall chimney dominating the skyline. Production was under way in
September 1906 and fully operational by the following year. Throughout the first half of the 20th
century production continued at a pace but, by the end of the Second World War, had declined to
such an extent that many of the buildings had become redundant. While other trades rented some
of the unused space, the malt industry continued to decline until, in 1959, production finally ceased.
Chicken and Veg
In 1973 the Sleaford Bass Maltings were purchased by a local firm, GW Padley (Property) Ltd who
utilised it for chicken rearing and vegetable processing, but the chicken rearing came to end during
the 1990s when approval was given for residential development of adjacent land.
The Blaze
Considered to be of special architectural and historical interest, the Sleaford Bass Maltings were
Grade II listed in 1974, only to suffer considerable damage two years later when a severe fire spread
through the central area. Found this warning too on english heritage... “NB Please note that this site is
not currently open to the public. Tours are sometimes arranged by the Sleaford Maltings Group for heritage
open days and other similar eventsÂâ€.....
1.
2. External taken on a previous recce
3. Double Negative
4. Malt room reflections
5.
6. Stairing downwards
7. Spiral tap
8.
9. Windows, very nice ones..
10.
11. Looking back from the spiral stairs
12. Above those stairs
13. One of the many death defying adjoining walkways
14. Looking up..
After not having my camera out of the bag for over 4 months for various reasons, I made a revisit with Session9 in November to try to get back into it. We had a quick mooch around a couple of the main buildings and the central area. Most of my pics turned out cack, but i managed to pick out a couple of average ones, shown below..
15.
16.
17.
18. Surveying the damage caused by a fire at the end of the summer.
19. Rooflections
20.
21.
Just a random fact... "In addition to their wages, workers were given three free pints a day!",
If only I was born 50 years earlier....
As always, thanks for looking and feedback always appreciated.
One of those days when you find yourself with exploration withdrawal symptoms and it's too late to find a partner in grime.
So I decided to take the short drive to sleaford solo to check out this huge complex. I was "going in dry" so to speak, with only
some google maps printouts, a ginsters pasty, a scotch egg, and a determined mind. A little bit of fog helped maintain ninja infiltration,
a mental note was made to add kevlar shreddies to my kit. For those of you that have been here before, you'll know that it's a bit of a
ball-ache (literally) due to the fact that each of the eight massive buildings are sectioned off from each other resulting in a lot of
climbing in and out mid-explore. Despite this, I thoroughly enjoyed having a mooch around here for about 5 hours, the spiral
staircase room and the tower above is obviously one of the main attractions, and the upper floors of the fire damaged buildings
require the use of your little ballerina shoes
The history
The years of beer :beer: :beer2:
Designed specifically to facilitate three key stages in the production of beer, the Sleaford Bass
Maltings represent both a practical and architecturally pleasing group of buildings.
Covering a geographical area of just over 13 acres, and comprising some 500,000 sq ft of floor space,
the Sleaford Bass Maltings cost around £350,000 to complete. Standing against a backdrop of flat
landscape, this impressive complex can be seen for many miles, its eight massive malt houses,
central water tower, and tall chimney dominating the skyline. Production was under way in
September 1906 and fully operational by the following year. Throughout the first half of the 20th
century production continued at a pace but, by the end of the Second World War, had declined to
such an extent that many of the buildings had become redundant. While other trades rented some
of the unused space, the malt industry continued to decline until, in 1959, production finally ceased.
Chicken and Veg
In 1973 the Sleaford Bass Maltings were purchased by a local firm, GW Padley (Property) Ltd who
utilised it for chicken rearing and vegetable processing, but the chicken rearing came to end during
the 1990s when approval was given for residential development of adjacent land.
The Blaze
Considered to be of special architectural and historical interest, the Sleaford Bass Maltings were
Grade II listed in 1974, only to suffer considerable damage two years later when a severe fire spread
through the central area. Found this warning too on english heritage... “NB Please note that this site is
not currently open to the public. Tours are sometimes arranged by the Sleaford Maltings Group for heritage
open days and other similar eventsÂâ€.....
1.
2. External taken on a previous recce
3. Double Negative
4. Malt room reflections
5.
6. Stairing downwards
7. Spiral tap
8.
9. Windows, very nice ones..
10.
11. Looking back from the spiral stairs
12. Above those stairs
13. One of the many death defying adjoining walkways
14. Looking up..
After not having my camera out of the bag for over 4 months for various reasons, I made a revisit with Session9 in November to try to get back into it. We had a quick mooch around a couple of the main buildings and the central area. Most of my pics turned out cack, but i managed to pick out a couple of average ones, shown below..
15.
16.
17.
18. Surveying the damage caused by a fire at the end of the summer.
19. Rooflections
20.
21.
Just a random fact... "In addition to their wages, workers were given three free pints a day!",
If only I was born 50 years earlier....
As always, thanks for looking and feedback always appreciated.
