24 May 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

The Sedgeford Anglo-Saxon malting complex may be the largest ever discovered in the UK

As archaeological excavations resume on a hill in Sedgeford, near Hunstanton, a seaside town in Norfolk, England, now more evidence has emerged they were malting grain on an industrial scale to supply the demand for ancient homebrew.

Over the last five summers, the remains of six separate malthouses have been discovered in one of the fields that rise up from the Heacham River above the village. More may lay undiscovered nearby.

As more Mid-Anglo-Saxon grain-dryers are discovered, a few of them have been determined to be malting kilns by the carbonized remnants of germinated grain discovered inside and around them.

As this summer’s Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project (Sharp) got underway in early July, archaeologists who camp on a nearby field for the annual six-week excavation found more thatch and mud wall and fragments of clay pavement, while possibly finding the remains of two cisterns.

The complex may already be the largest uncovered to date in the UK and Sharp’s director of excavations, Eleanor Blakelock, believes it may also be the earliest.

Dr. Eleanor Blakelock at the Sedgeford site where ancient maltings have been found. Photo: Chris Bishop
Dr. Eleanor Blakelock at the Sedgeford site where ancient maltings have been found. Photo: Chris Bishop

According to SHARP, the working hypothesis is now as follows. A set of features – cistern, floor, and kiln – would have been contained inside a timber malthouse. Periodically there were accidental fires – an occupational hazard throughout the history of malting – and these necessitated wholesale replacement. Thus we have not just one, but a sequence of malthouses, each with a cistern, floor, and kiln.

“This has been getting bigger every year,” Dr Blakelock told the Eastern Daily Press.

“It’s like an industry but it’s not a cottage industry – this would have been supplying several villages.”

According to Dr. Blakelock, grain would have been steeped—allowed to start germinating, allowing sugars and enzymes to develop in the seed—before being gently dried by kilns, whose blackened floors are visible in places where the soil has been carefully scraped away. There is no proof, however, that beer was ever brewed there.

Clay-lined floor of cistern. Photo: Sharp
Clay-lined floor of cistern. Photo: Sharp

Dr Blakelock said instead malt would have been divided up among families who would then have brewed their own at home.

She added the malthouses would have supplied enough raw material to slake the thirst of a community 200 or more strong, perhaps overseen by a benevolent lord.

Archaeologists have also found fragments of weeds including bindweed along with grain in the malting houses – suggesting it may have been left in to add further flavouring to the brew.

Since work on the site began in 1996, previous seasons have seen the discovery of Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Romano-British relics across the valley from the modern village.

Cover Photo: Sharp

Related Articles

Drone photos reveal Venice of the Fertile Crescent

16 October 2022

16 October 2022

A drone survey of Lagash, a site located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, revealed that the 4,900-year-old settlement was...

Iron Age Children’s a Unique Funerary Building Discovered in Oman

3 March 2024

3 March 2024

Archaeologists have uncovered a unique Iron Age children’s funerary building at the Manaqi archaeological site in Rustaq, South Al Batinah...

Roman era total of 46 early settler burials discovered in Germany

17 September 2023

17 September 2023

Students from Goethe University Frankfurt, in collaboration with the Hesse archeology department at the Darmstadt branch of the State Monument...

The New Study, Reveals Invisible Stews

25 November 2022

25 November 2022

New Results of Organic Residue Analyzes of Beveled Rim Bowls in Mesopotamia Reveal Invisible Stews. The world’s first urban state...

9 Relics of Neanderthal Found in The Guattari Cave

8 May 2021

8 May 2021

Archaeologists in Italy have discovered the remains of nine Neanderthals who were reportedly killed and mauled by hyenas in their...

Unique Heart-Shaped Jesuit Ring from 1700s at Fort St Joseph, Michigan

18 September 2022

18 September 2022

An archeology student from the Fort St. Joseph Archeology project at Western Michigan University has uncovered a unique heart-shaped Jesuit...

King Stephen 12th Century rare penny hoard found near Wymondham

21 November 2023

21 November 2023

An unnamed metal detectorist recently discovered a scarce collection of 12th-century silver pennies near the village of Wymondham in the...

Ancient Murals of Two-faced Figures Found in Peru

21 March 2023

21 March 2023

Archaeologists are reporting a number of fascinating discoveries as work on the excavations at Pañamarca progresses that are helping to...

The 6,000-year-old settlement found in island of Corsica

2 May 2023

2 May 2023

Archaeologists in a French municipality recently excavated the slopes of Punta Campana (island of Corsica) in preparation for a construction...

An opulent 2,000-year-old ‘city hall’ has been discovered near the Western Wall in Israel

8 July 2021

8 July 2021

An important 2,000-year-old public building has been unearthed near the wailing wall in Israel. Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority...

In Bergama, the City of Greek Gods, the People Kept the Cult of Cybele Alive

25 August 2021

25 August 2021

The figurines of Cybele, the goddess of the fertility of Anatolia, and the presence of sanctuaries unearthed in the Ancient...

A mysterious lead tablet with an unknown 13th-14th-century script: Might be an old Lithuanian script?

26 February 2024

26 February 2024

In the Museum of the Palace of the Grand Dukes in Vilnius, Lithuania, a mysterious lead tablet dating back to...

3,000-Year-Old Cave Paintings Discovered in Itatiaia National Park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

13 April 2025

13 April 2025

In a stunning revelation, a dedicated team of researchers from the National Museum, in collaboration with the Federal University of...

Turkish researchers to work in Mount Ağrı believed to host Noah’s Ark remains

15 December 2022

15 December 2022

A team from Istanbul Technical University (İTÜ) and Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen University (AİÇÜ) has started in the area where the...

A rare bronze talismanic healing bowl was discovered in Hasankeyf excavations

3 December 2023

3 December 2023

During the ongoing excavations in the Hasankeyf mound in Batman, one of the oldest settlements in the world, an 800-year-old...