A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



MALTING 



Malting has, no doubt, been for centuries a 

 Suffolk industry in the sense that more malt 

 has been produced in the county than was 

 needed for its own consumption. But during 

 the last decade of the nineteenth century the 

 industry has entered on a new phase, not merely 

 of expansion, but of technical and economic 

 development which, as it is largely to be attri- 

 buted to favouring conditions of locality, deserves 

 special mention in the history of the county. 

 Twenty years ago small mailings were to be 

 found in nearly every village, the product of 

 which was collected and disposed of by dealers in 

 the towns. The small malt-houses are still 

 everywhere to be seen, but the work they used 

 to do has been almost entirely concentrated at 

 the ports, where immense buildings have sprung 

 up, constructed on scientific principles in imme- 

 diate contact with the water transport, which 

 delivers the material and carries away the malt 

 at a minimum of cost for freight. This change 

 is due to a variety of causes. In the first place, 

 the barley malted in Suffolk is no longer grown 

 there, but comes by the shipload from the 

 Pacific coast, the Danube, the Sea of Marmora, 

 Asia Minor, Tunis, and Algeria, so that the ports 

 arenearestto all the sourcesof supply. The Suffolk 

 ports have the further advantage of being nearest 

 to the largest demand for malt, which is that of 

 the great London breweries. The malting itself 

 cannot be done in London because it requires 

 plenty of space and a free supply of pure 

 air. Both of these were available around the 

 Ipswich dock, and at Lowestoft, Wood bridge, 

 Beccles, and Snape, where malting is now ex- 



tensively carried on, and whence the malt can 

 be easily transported to the Thames in barges. 

 The largest firm of maltsters in Ipswich employ 

 a dozen lighters and some fifteen barges (which 

 they build themselves) in this work, and they 

 also have five steamers of their own engaged in 

 bringing the barley from foreign ports. 



Another factor in producing the concentration 

 above described has been the technical progress 

 made in the industry. The rough and ready 

 country malting of former days would not satisfy 

 the demands of modern scientific brewing. It is 

 not so much a matter of machinery, though 

 machinery is extensively used in turning, hoisting, 

 and delivering the barley, as of adapting the 

 buildings to the several processes so as to 

 preserve the right temperature for each process, 

 whilst economizing the labour spent in transition 

 from one to the other. The mailings have 

 accordingly to be built very high, and the old 

 buildings are rendered obsolele. The industry 

 in short, has become one requiring the applica- 

 tion of fixed capital, and the greater part of it 

 has therefore passed into ihe hands of a com- 

 paratively small number of firms, the chief of 

 these being Messrs. R. and M. Paul, Messrs. 

 E. Fison & Co., Messrs. T. Moriimer & Co., 

 and ihe Ipswich Malting Co., at Ipswich ; and 

 Messrs. Garreit, Newson & Son, at Snape. 

 Along with malting other allied industries are 

 carried on by these firms, such as corn-milling, 

 the preparation of feeding stuffs from oats, peas, 

 and beans, and the flaking of mall. In relalion 

 lo ihe amounl of capital ihus lurned over, ihe 

 quantity of labour employed is not very large.* 



PRINTING 



The pleasant but quiet and secluded country 

 town of Bungay is not the place in which one 

 would expect to find a busy printing Press which 

 turns out some of ihe leading periodical literature 

 of the day. Yet the Press of Bungay is 1 10 years 

 old, and its past has been a distinguished one. 

 In ihe eighleenth cenlury Bungay assumed some 

 of ihe airs of a small provincial capilal. It 

 advertised itself as a spa, possessed a ihealre, and 

 was crowded wilh fashionable assemblies of local 

 geniry during ihe season. 1 Some of ihese glories 

 had faded when Mr. Charles Brighlly set up 

 business as a primer in 1795 ; bul for Suffolk as 

 a whole ihis was a period of induslrial revival, 

 nearly all ihe large manufacluring concerns of 

 ihe present day having been established wilhin 

 len years of that date. Mr. Brightly was a man 

 of initiative. He was one of the pioneers of the 



1 Suckling, Hist, of Stiff, i. 



stereolyping process, and in 1809 he published a 

 small book explaining his melhods. He was 

 joined in his business in 1805 by Mr. J. R. 

 Childs, and ihe firm became one of ihe largest 

 printers and publishers of periodical literalure in 

 ihe kingdom. Messrs. Childs & Son were 

 among ihe first lo inlroduce ihe praclice of 

 bringing oul large works in sixpenny parts, one 

 of the books so published being Barclay's 

 Dictionary. A picluresque Iradilion survives 

 al Bungay of how Mr. Childs Iraversed ihe 

 counlry in a chaise lo solicit orders for his 

 publications, armed for self-defence wilh a pair 

 of pisiols. In 1855, when the firm had come 

 to be mainly occupied in priming for London 

 and olher publishers, iheir slock of slereolype 

 plates was said to weigh above 300 tons. 8 In 



' Ex inf. Messrs. R. & M. Paul. 

 * White, Direct, of Suff. 



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