Amber Patrick’s The Buildings of the Malting Industry is the culmination of a long involvement with the archaeology and history of the malting industry. That long involvement and depth of knowledge is apparent throughout this book, which will become an important reference for any buildings, or indeed field, archaeologist working on these buildings and processes. It builds on what has been a surprising thin literature contained within more general work on the wider brewing industry and investigates the evidence for an industry that was fundamental to the economy of many rural areas and was the foundation of the brewing industry that sustained Britain’s cities.
The book starts with a description of the process of malting before exploring the evidence for malting from Prehistory to the later medieval period. This early history is necessarily brief, relying primarily on scattered excavated examples of malting processes, but highlights how this distinctive process can be evidenced. The story picks up in earnest in the post-medieval period with the increasing survival of purpose-built structures and more complete documentary records of the process. The book effectively captures the technological social, cultural and economic changes that influenced the development of the industry through this period and the buildings that supported it. Some of the key influences involved include the influence of changing tax regimes, industrial processes and the changing markets for the malt.
The book presents numerous examples of surviving structures or archaeological remains to support each stage of its narrative, and the illustrations are well-chosen, clear and useful. The text strikes a good balance between presenting the technical detail and remaining readable and engaging. The appendices are used to good effect with a useful description of the key processes involved, including a detailed description of the malting process, building layout typology, guides to weights and measures, and lists of architects and patents. The glossary is particularly useful given the necessarily technical nature of much of the text, but even so, most terms are unobtrusively explained in context in the text.
This book fills an important gap in the archaeology of a key industry and does an excellent job to introduce the reader to the key developments in that industry. It is genuinely enjoyable to read and will become a useful reference that deserves its place on any buildings archaeologist’s bookshelf.