Albrighton Maltings, Station Road, Albrighton.

Albrighton Maltings, Station Road, Albrighton.

W. Butler, Springfield Brewery, Wolverhampton owned the maltings in Albrighton. Barley was purchased by the brewers from local farmers and turned into malted barley, which was sent on to the brewery in Wolverhampton for the production of beer.
The maltings was originally owned by the Birmingham Brewers Fred Smiths, (their lorry is in the picture) who were purchased by Butlers in 1956.

The maltings were destroyed by fire in 1959 and never rebuilt.

There were many maltings in East Shropshire, supplying malt to the many Black Country breweries, because of the good supplies of raw materials i.e. barley and coal, and the good rail links to the Breweries.

As a young lad working at Butlers, in the early sixties, one of my jobs was to help open the morning post. I remember every September the farmers from east Shropshire sending in to the Company little boxes of barley, hoping to sell their crop straight to the Brewery. Brewers always purchased the best barley. It therefore commanded a premium price and farmers were eager to sell their barley for beer making.

Malt is produced from barley by spreading the barley over a pervious floor. Heat and water are applied, causing the barley to germinate. The barley has to be turned regularly, with a malt shovel, (see photo right). At a set time, determined by the maltster, the germination is halted. The barley is then roasted by dry heat from below. The maltster determines when the process is complete.

I remember in the maltings, taking a handful of the malted barley and eating it. It tastes very much like Horlicks!