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One of the most imposing of the town's historic buildings is the Old Maltings in West Street, particularly so because the red brick premises have been sympathetically restored for modern business use. The original owner was John Dove, a local farmer who brewed his own ale but the buildings appear to have been rebuilt in 1806, after a serious fire fifteen years earlier had destroyed part of the premises, and enlarged during the mid-19th century with the addition of wine and spirit vaults, a bottle house, counting house and other ancillary buildings. By the 1960’s, the premises had became one of the few manually operated maltings left in the country using tools like the turning shovel, turning fork and floor plough on the malting floor. But business declined and part of the building became a depot and showroom for farm machinery and part for the manufacture of electronic control equipment but is now fully owned by Warners Midlands plc and used as the headquarters for their expanding colour printing business. The
story of Warners Midlands plc and a profile of its founder Lorenzo Warner Return to HOME PAGE MAIN INDEX
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