Category: Trade: Malting

Weekend Support Required By Warminster Maltings

Monday 15th September 2025

From Warminster Maltings:

Warminster Maltings Ltd is Britain’s oldest working maltings, making premium quality malts for the brewing and distilling industries. The company’s particularly high profile continues to attract new business, and The Maltings is very busy so now needs to expand its team of maltsters.

At this stage we are only looking for weekend support, working 1 in every 3 weekends (Saturday & Sunday, 6am to 11am).

We also require every other bank holiday to be worked and there may be the opportunity for additional hours to cover holiday / absences.

There is the potential for this role to develop into a full-time position for the right person.

This is skilled physical work and training will be provided. If you are reliable, hardworking and have some previous experience in production, we would love to hear from you.

The main duties will be the production of malt, which includes grain handling (shovelling, turning, bagging) along with some maintenance work.

This is a *very* physically demanding role, so a certain level of fitness is necessary, and the role may not be suitable for people with a sensitivity to grain dust.

This is an opportunity to be an inclusive part of a uniquely successful team, which is competitively rewarded for performance and achievement.

Please apply by sending your CV to info@warminster-malt.co.uk

Locally Valued Heritage Assets (LVHA) ~ Culverhouse Barn, Church Street, Warminster

From Appendix 7.8 – Warminster’s Heritage Topic Paper. Additional information to support the Warminster Neighbourhood Plan. Produced in 2024.

Locally Valued Heritage Assets (LVHA)

Map Ref. No. 11

Database Ref. LVHA23.1

Asset Name: Culverhouse Barn.

Description:
Example of the distinctive linear buildings of the town’s internationally important malting industry. Most survive only partially, but Culverhouse Barn (not a listed building) and Warminster Maltings in Pound Street (LB) survive intact. Both buildings on Conservation Area Assessment Map 2006.

How asset met Historic England critera –
Rarity (R)
Architectural or Artistic Interest (AA)
Group Value (GV)
Archaeological Interest (AI)
Historic Interest / Association (HI/A)

(R) Rare examples of maltings buildings.
(AAI) Distinctive construction with floors for drying grain.
(GV) Demonstrating the extent of the prosperous malting industry in 18th and 19th c Warminster.
(HI) History of malting, brewing and growing grains.
(SCV) A source of much of the town’s prosperity in the 18th C.

Warminster Maltings ~ Full Of Eastern Promise

Wednesday 6th July 2022

From the Newsletter of The Friends Of Warminster Maltings, Edition 41, 6th July 2022:

Full Of Eastern Promise
This very ordinary picture of a shipping container full of Warminster Malt, is not so ordinary as far as Warminster Maltings is concerned. Because this particular container is the very first consignment of malt we have loaded for shipping to Japan!

This 20 tonnes order is destined to a single customer, a distillery, whose prompt and professional negotiations were a positive delight to respond to. More than that, they have paid us in sterling, and they lodged the money in our account ahead of our loading the container. That is particularly impressive when you consider the container will take up to 10 weeks to reach its destination!

Our customer has advised us that this 20 tonnes of malt will only serve 6 weeks of production, so we are hoping, if they are happy with our products (we sent them three different malts), that this could become a new regular customer.

This new business is all part of a trend that we are seeing, an emerging and expanding demand for distilling malts from new distilleries. Particularly here in England where we are witnessing a whole swathe of ‘new builds’, not least on our doorstep in Wiltshire. They are all quite adamant that they have to have local barley, and ‘floor made’ malt. In fact, I believe our presence is a factor in the choice of location for some of these enterprises. Who knows, 10 years from now, the countryside surrounding Warminster could even become known as “Whisky Valley”?

Robin Appel.

www.warminster-malt.co.uk/edition-41-friends-of-warminster-maltings/

New Staff At Warminster Maltings

Wednesday 6th July 2022

From the Newsletter of The Friends Of Warminster Maltings, Edition 41, 6th July 2022:

We pride ourselves that we have a very low turnover of staff at the Maltings, three current members being part of the original team that was already here when I arrived in 2001. So, it is unusual for us to talk about new staff, let alone three new staff since my last Newsletter. However, two of them are additional members to the team.

Lisa Conduit has joined Avril Royster and Wendy Scott as a third member of our administration force. This is initially to allow Avril and Wendy to drop down to a four-day week (each taking alternate long weekends), but also as a first step towards addressing the matter of succession another day. Lisa lives in the town, and is able to walk to work, something that many other people might now be thinking about.

Out in the Maltings, Jake Scutt and Brandon Bownes, are partly replacing a member of staff who left us in the Spring, but also providing an extra pair of hands as our workload continues to build. Again, both Jake and Brandon live in the town, which is so helpful when addressing the 24/7 focus we have to maintain on the malting process.

Lisa Conduit

Complimentary to these new appointments, I have introduced an additional formal training programme for all our staff, which sets out to explain in greater detail the whole process of malting, from barley production on the farm, a much more detailed insight into the separate procedures in the malthouse and including an explanation of all the grades of malt we produce, and for whom they are intended.

My first two ‘students’ have been Nathan Ball and Nic Corper, both are established ‘hands on’ maltsters, but both keen to gain a better and wider understanding of the tasks they perform each day. My weekly tutorials have one more session to go, after which I will turn the procedure around, and invite Nathan and Nick to review and discuss each topic with me, to ensure they have gained something of a better grasp of the intricacies of malting practice. It is all about encouraging a shared ownership of everything we do at the Maltings, and a shared commitment to perfection. If this programme has proved successful, Jake, Brandon, and Lisa will be invited to follow suit.

Robin Appel.

www.warminster-malt.co.uk/edition-41-friends-of-warminster-maltings/

Restoration Progress At Warminster Maltings

Wednesday 6th July 2022

From the Newsletter of The Friends Of Warminster Maltings, Edition 41, 6th July 2022:

Restoration Progress
Most Warminster people are very much aware of a tall and expansive plastic canopy that enshrouds one corner of our Maltings, but it is not easy to see from the road exactly what is going on underneath. After more than 6 months of this project, they might even ask if anything is going on at all!

Well, work is progressing, albeit slowly. Like so many other industry sectors, we are hampered by the lack of available raw materials, and a lack of skilled labour in the construction industry, most of whom are struggling with the huge backlog of work caused by 2 years of ‘lockdowns’.

However, by way of an update, I can advise you the Pound Street elevation has had most of its roof refurbished, that was completed first. The more complex work involves the dismantling, and now the reconstruction, of the two kilns. We are on the brick and stonework at the moment, much of the second-floor elevations requiring a complete rebuild.

We are advised the work will almost certainly stretch well into the winter, but hopefully before Christmas we will be uncovering the almost final if not completed works. But, for the time being, although it may not look like it, it is work in progress. We are grateful to our contractors, Chalke Valley Roofing, who ensure there are craftsmen on site every working day. I might describe it as gentle but steady progress!

Robin Appel.

www.warminster-malt.co.uk/edition-41-friends-of-warminster-maltings/

Richard Guy Of East Hill Farm, Heytesbury, And Richard Garrett Of Warminster Maltings Interviewed On BBC4 Farming Today

Monday 10th August 2015:

Richard Guy, of East Hill Farm, Heytesbury, and Chris Garrett, of Warminster Maltings, both interviewed on BBC4 Farming Today.

http://www.yourvalleynews.co.uk/frontpag…/warminster-on-air/

Christmas Trees At The Pound Street Malthouse, Warminster

Sunday 21st December 2014

Warminster Maltings Ltd., have decorated the west-facing frontage of the Malthouse at Pound Street, Warminster, with not one but four illuminated Christmas trees.

Photographs taken by Danny Howell on Sunday 21st December 2014.

Great British Railway Journeys ~ Michael Portillo Visits Warminster Maltings

Monday 28th January 2013

Michael Portillo, in this week’s five episodes of Great British Railway Journeys (Monday to Friday, on BBC2, at 6.30 p.m), is travelling from Paddington to Newton Abbot in Devon, with his trusty Victorian Bradshaw’s Guide, comparing then with now. 

Tonight, in the enjoyable half hour programme, he did the first stage, 99 miles from the Paddington terminus to Warminster. On the way he made a visit to the former Middlesex County Asylum at Hanwell, where he was not only able to see stored human brains (for research) but was able to handle one. After an overnight stay in Hungerford, he boarded the train again, crossing over the county border into Wiltshire, stopping at Westbury, making his way up to Bratton Castle, to help clean the Westbury White Horse. He then took the train again, to Warminster, where he paid a visit to the Malthouse at Pound Street.

Warminster Railway Station from the air.
Hillbourne Close lower left of picture.
Avenue Primary School and Central Car Park
in topright of the picture.

Michael Portillo at Warminster Railway Station.

The Pound Street Malthouse from the air.
Pound Street on the left and Pound Row
in the top left corner of the picture.

The Pound Street Malthouse is the sole surviving
working maltings in Warminster.

Robin Appel explained to Michael that the 19th
century method of malting is still continued here.

The attactive garden at the Pound Street Malthouse.

The process includes steeping the barley grain in water,
setting off the process to convert starch into sugar.

Michael wondered how anyone first thought up the process.

A chance to look at the early ledgers.

The railway was used for transporting malt.

Having heard the history it was time to
go and see the malting process.

Robin Appel explains the process to Michael.

The production of malt is manually done.

A fascinating survival of an old tradition.

Robin and Michael watching the ancient craft.

The grain is dragged through with a pronged tool.

Low ceilings and back-breaking work.

Michael had a go at “ploughing” the barley grain,
which saw him bent over and making jerky movements.

Michael Portillo on Platform 2
of Warminster Railway Station.

Leaving for Salisbury.

Warminster Railway Station from the air.
Northfield Industrial Estate in lower left corner.
Hillbourne Close in lower right corner.
Lidl supermarket in top left corner.
Central Car Park in top right corner.