The Maltings

The Maltings

The Site

The site of the Maltings is first referred to when it was purchased from the Archdekin family in 1810 by William Sullivan and Mr. McLoughlan. This is probably the date for the present building, which was built as an expansion to the Sullivan Brewery on James's Street and High Street (Lanigan and Tyler1977, 73). The Sullivan Brewery was established in 1702, making it the oldest brewery in Ireland, although, the Civil Survey of 1656 records "A Malt House on the west side of High Street, standing backward in James's street," with James Bryan as the proprietor (Simington 1931-34).

The brewery buildings of the St.James's Street Brewery on James's Street were recently demolished to make way for the Market Cross Shooping Centre and multistorey car park. The Maltings, as part of the Sullivan Brewery complex, remained in the Sullivan family until 1917, when the brewery was purchased by the E. Smithwicks Brewing Company, which held the property until it was sold to Kilkenny Corporation during the recent redevelopment of the area.

The buildings on the site are listed in the Industrial Archaeological Survey of County Kilkenny as a grade 4 listed building, "largely intact along with it's massive kiln. Part of it's former waterwheel still survive at the James Street premises....formerly of operated by the Sullivans latterly by Smithwicks' (Map Ref. 091; Site Number103) (Hammond 1990,42)

Tilbury Place

Tilbury Place (formerly Evan's Lane) lies to the immediate west of the site and joins Evan's Lane (formerly Evan's Lane Upper) to the north and James's Street to the south. The lane was also known as St. James's Sconce and James's Street Sconce in 1841 and functioned as a laneway immediately inside the town walls to provide access for the city's defenders (Lanigan and Tyler 1977,73). Tilbury Place (marked as Evan's Lane), James's Street and Evan's Lane (marked as evan's Lane Lower) are all marked on Rocque's map of 1758

Archaeological Background

James's Street marked on the northern extent of Hightown, or English Town, in the earliest phrase of the anglo-Norman settlement. The town wall of c. 1176-1206 was located along the line of the street prior to the town's expansion northwards in the thirteenth century (Bradley 1995). A large, finely preserved section of the medieval town wall survives on the southern side of the street, running north - south.

Medieval features have been exposed in archaeological excavations close to the site as shallow as 0.2m below the ground floor level. Recent excavations of the neighbouring property at 23 James's Street revealed numerous medieval and post-medieval features, including a well, stone wall footings and rubbish pits dating from the thirteenth century, as well as a post medieval child burial (Stevens 2000). Excavations of a site at 5-7 James's Street revealed thirteenth-century post holes and dry-stone walls, possibly representing early houses along the street following the expansion of the medieval town, sealed by layers of medieval garden soil, post medieval and early modern rubble. (Stevens 1998; Read 1999).

Archaeological testing in 1989, in advance of the Market Cross Shopping Centre, revealed the medieval town wall, resting on redeposited boulder clay, up to 0.45m in thickness, over natural gravels (Cotter 1990, 34). This large development straddles James's Street, abutting "The Maltings" building on Tilbury Place, and is accessed from Parliament Street, High Street and James's Street. Also revealed in further testing and subsequent archaeological monitoring were medieval garden soils, rubbish pits and other medieval features (Channing 1992, 28-9; 1993, 39).

(Printed by kind permission of Margaret Gowen)