Shops plan for old Joule’s malthouse

One of Stone’s most historic buildings is in line for a new lease of life after plans were submitted to convert the old Joule’s malthouse into two ground-floor shops and three apartments.

The Maltings, on Crown Street and alongside Adie’s Alley, is thought to have been built in 1780 and was a malthouse for Joules’s brewery in the town until 1908. The Grade II listed building has been owned since 1963 by Stone Ford car dealers Hill and Swift and they have submitted a planning application to Stafford Borough Council seeking permission to convert it.

As well as seeking to transform the malthouse, Hill and Swift also want to build a separate apartments building with undercroft parking and a car showroom on land they own next to the malthouse and where there currently sits a Hill and Swift car display room.

The existing car display room would be demolished and replaced with a new building providing ground-floor parking and apartments on the first, second and third levels. A new car display unit would be built at ground level to front Crown Street.

A planning application to convert The Maltings that was submitted by Hill and Swift in 2007 was rejected by Stafford Borough Council in May 2011 because the plans would fail to preserve the special historical and architectural interest of the building. The new planning application addresses these concerns, says the applicant.

A design and access statement submitted as part of the application states that the conversion will “rejuvenate a site in a key area of Stone town centre, with the benefit of enhancing the appearance of an important pedestrian route to the canal through Adie’s Alley. This will be achieved through a carefully considered, respectful and quality refurbishment of a vacant, rundown historic Grade II building, providing new retail shops to Adie’s Alley which will encourage and attract people along the canal route. The development will offer good quality living accommodation whilst ensuring the future of the historic malthouse building”.

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You can still see evidence of the building’s brewing past from Adie’s Alley. The wooden slatted shutters on the ground floor would have been used to increase or decrease ventilation into the growing floor. A wooden door on the first floor would have been used to unload barley into the first-floor barley store from carts in Adie’s Alley. The malthouse’s kiln survives, as does the drying floor on the second floor that is considered extremely rare. The plans for the building would create a display area to show off the kiln.

A structural survey carried out as part of the planning application reveals the building to be in a generally very poor state. The design and access statement says the current condition of the building “does not welcome or encourage visitors and people unfamiliar with Stone town centre to go through Adie’s Alley as a route to the High Street, or vice versa from the High Street to the canal front”.

The building went out of use as a malthouse in 1908 and was sold to Shortall Bros, corn merchants, in 1918 and was used as a grain store. During the Second World War it had its capacity increased for wartime grain storage. Hill and Swift bought the building in 1963, using the ground floor to store and service cars. It has been out of use now for many years.

Philip Leason, chairman of Stone Historical Society, has welcomed the planning application. He said: “Provided that the character of the building is retained I welcome the planning application on the old maltings building. The building has looked in a sorry state for a number of years and being one of the maltings which supplied malt to our local breweries is part of the heritage of Stone.”

Stafford-based Croft Architecture has produced the plans.

Architect Carl Croft said: “Stone is an historic brewing town and we felt it was important to reflect this by incorporating elements of the Maltings interior into the plans. We are proposing a stunning space, utilising features including the original timber beams. Ideally this could be used by a company selling local produce, including beer, to reinforce the link to craft brewing in Stone.

“Adies Alley is an important site, connecting Stone High Street with the rear of the town centre. The significance of the site was highlighted in the Stone Market Town Initiative Study, by Stafford Borough Council which talked about the importance of a gateway into the town centre from the Trent and Mersey Canal.

“Currently it is visually uninspiring but we believe these plans will open up the town centre and take away the barrier between the town centre and the attractive canalside area near to the Star Lock.”

A bat survey has been carried out as part of the planning application and no sign of bats detected. However, because the building contains many areas that could be used for roosting, Hill and Swift are being recommended to take a ‘precautionary’ approach during any future works to reduce the likelihood of an offence being committed. It has also been recommended that any works are timed outside of the bird nesting season.

A decision is due on the application in January. You can see the planning application and all the associated documents and make a comment HERE.