History
The firm was set up in 1831 by Edwin Tucker in Ashburton who traded as agricultural merchants, seedsmen and maltsters. His son, Parnell chose to move to the buildings current site, beside the railway, close to Newton Abbot train station in 1898. The building was designed by William Bradford and construction began in 1900, with the completed building containing four kilns, germinating floors and production machinery. Much of the original methods of production and machinery continued to be used until the buildings closure.
Closure of the maltings was announced in June 2018 with the firm saying that: “Operating on this scale has finally proven to be uncompetitive in the modern world and increasing capacity within the old traditional building would be very difficult while not jeopardising the quality of the product.”
Tuckers Maltings finally closed on 31st October 2018; it was one of only four traditional malt houses in the UK. The southern section of the building is still home to Tuckers taphouse and Teignworthy Brewery.
old photos of the building in use can be found here:
https://viewfinder.historicengland....=MALTINGS&county=DEVON&placeName=newton abbot
The explore
Visited with prettyvacant. We first had a go at exploring the building in May but shortly after got our cameras out several workers arrived and chucked prettyvacant out, leaving me to try and escape unseen. As soon as I realised we weren’t alone, I did the best I could and hid in the corner of one of the kilns and was inches away from being spotted when a guy came in the doorway to turn off the light. It took me a good while to make it out unseen, avoiding a dog at the bottom of one of the stairs along with the workers, who appeared to be dismantling some bits.
I didn’t manage to return until November and we were relieved to see that the previous entry method was still possible most of the building as it was before any most of lights still worked.
Pictures start on the ground floor, going up
A view of the full length of the now disused section of the maltings
The kiln furnace room. These were originally coal fired
Furnace door
The ground and first floors were mainly taken up by the germination floors
I think the this room contains screening equipment for the barley
One of the many 'Boby' barrows used to spread grain evenly over the germinating floor
Grain hopper
The grain hopper from above
On our previous visit this room was filled up with modern steel tanks
Cap in the workers rest room
More tanks
Screening room which was set up as a museum prior to closure
Line shafting in the screening room
Walkway in the roof space
More original machinery on the top floor
One of the two complete kilns
Two of the kilns were shutdown many years before closure
Jacob's ladder bucket elevator, used to take grain to the top of the building
The view from one of the elevator towers. The windows of the room at the top were covered in thousands of flys so I didn't stay up there for long
Thanks for looking
The firm was set up in 1831 by Edwin Tucker in Ashburton who traded as agricultural merchants, seedsmen and maltsters. His son, Parnell chose to move to the buildings current site, beside the railway, close to Newton Abbot train station in 1898. The building was designed by William Bradford and construction began in 1900, with the completed building containing four kilns, germinating floors and production machinery. Much of the original methods of production and machinery continued to be used until the buildings closure.
Closure of the maltings was announced in June 2018 with the firm saying that: “Operating on this scale has finally proven to be uncompetitive in the modern world and increasing capacity within the old traditional building would be very difficult while not jeopardising the quality of the product.”
Tuckers Maltings finally closed on 31st October 2018; it was one of only four traditional malt houses in the UK. The southern section of the building is still home to Tuckers taphouse and Teignworthy Brewery.
old photos of the building in use can be found here:
https://viewfinder.historicengland....=MALTINGS&county=DEVON&placeName=newton abbot
The explore
Visited with prettyvacant. We first had a go at exploring the building in May but shortly after got our cameras out several workers arrived and chucked prettyvacant out, leaving me to try and escape unseen. As soon as I realised we weren’t alone, I did the best I could and hid in the corner of one of the kilns and was inches away from being spotted when a guy came in the doorway to turn off the light. It took me a good while to make it out unseen, avoiding a dog at the bottom of one of the stairs along with the workers, who appeared to be dismantling some bits.
I didn’t manage to return until November and we were relieved to see that the previous entry method was still possible most of the building as it was before any most of lights still worked.
Pictures start on the ground floor, going up
A view of the full length of the now disused section of the maltings
The kiln furnace room. These were originally coal fired
Furnace door
The ground and first floors were mainly taken up by the germination floors
I think the this room contains screening equipment for the barley
One of the many 'Boby' barrows used to spread grain evenly over the germinating floor
Grain hopper
The grain hopper from above
On our previous visit this room was filled up with modern steel tanks
Cap in the workers rest room
More tanks
Screening room which was set up as a museum prior to closure
Line shafting in the screening room
Walkway in the roof space
More original machinery on the top floor
One of the two complete kilns
Two of the kilns were shutdown many years before closure
Jacob's ladder bucket elevator, used to take grain to the top of the building
The view from one of the elevator towers. The windows of the room at the top were covered in thousands of flys so I didn't stay up there for long
Thanks for looking
Cracking this. Cant beat some lovely industrial snaps. Well worth your re try. I would of loved to see your first ninja escape lol.
