The brick maltings on Wharf Lane, empty since the last grain merchant closed, opened its doors this week as a shared workshop for artists and makers from across the Ackerbourne valley. A dozen studios are already occupied, with a small ceramics kiln and a print room shared between them.

The building had been on the town’s at-risk register for years. Its high windows and open floors, once suited to spreading and turning malt, have proved well matched to the light and space that craftspeople need.

Who has moved in

The first tenants cover a wide range of trades:

• A furniture restorer working in reclaimed valley oak
• Two potters sharing the ground-floor kiln
• A bookbinder and a letterpress printer in the old drying room
• A weaver whose loom came up the river by narrowboat

The workshop plans to open to visitors on the last Saturday of each month, with demonstrations and a stall selling seconds and offcuts. Organisers hope the maltings can become a fixture on the town’s cultural calendar rather than a one-season novelty.

For a building that spent a decade behind boarded windows, it is a considerable turn of fortune, and a reminder that Wrenfield’s industrial bones can still be put to use.

Related: Arts & Culture coverage · the valley choir's centenary

Further reading: About maltings

Written by

The Wrenfield Post