70/149

Malt skep,

This is an example of a malt skep or 'skip', used during the brewing process for transferring barley from the cistern to the working floor and green malt from the floor to the kiln. It is a round basket, made of white willow, with an iron-shod wooden base and a leather rim. It has two rope pulling handles and two wooden sled-like feet for dragging it over the floor. It was used at Warwick & Richardsons Brewery in Newark-upon-Trent, Nottinghamshire.

1 basket: willow, leather, fibre, wood, metal

MERL ‘Stakeholders’ recording form, December 2013 – Object number: 70/149 // Name of recorder: Karen Lawrence and Annemarie O’Sullivan // General construction method: Stake and strand // Overall shape: Round. Underfoot base, 5#5, 5x5 // Materials: Basket all willow – white willow. Leather reinforced border. Rope pulling handles. Runners made of wood and metal. // Base: 5#5 underfoot start. Straight with butts. Butts are tucked in underneath. After, 3 strokes pairing begins with new set of rods, starting with butts. // Sides: 2 stakes per base stick. 4-rod wale chased 4½ set of English randing. 40cm up is the rope hole. 2 rope pull holes on each side. From holes there is single slewing for 4cm. Sides are finished on 2 sets chasing 4-rod wale. // Border: Behind 2 in front of 4. Border reinforced/lashed with leather wrapped through every second stake and under one row of waling. Ends of border crammed instead of threaded – quicker and easier. // Handles: Rope pulling handles – 120cm, with spliced ends. One replaced? – thinner and tied on. // Lid: No lid. // Dimensions: Top width 67cm. Base width 57cm. Sides to top of border 51cm. Runners on base 54cm long x 9cm high // Anything else to note about this particular basket: 2 runners bolted to base, made of wood and metal. Covered wire tie at base – maybe a repair? Evidence of woodworm. // Anything else to note about this type of basket: Very substantial basket for dragging malt where load too heavy to lift., MERL miscellaneous note (70/125–70/149) – ‘Warwick & Richardsons brewery had its origins in a brewery established in Newark in 1766 by a brewer named Sketchley who had moved down the Trent from Burton. The business was later acquired by the Warwick family, and it became subsequently Richard Warwick & Sons Ltd. Merger with the neighbouring firm of Richardsons produced Warwick & Richardsons Ltd. in 1888. Warwicks’ brewery was in Northgate, Newark. The firm had its own maltings, a side of the business which was expanding during the late nineteenth century, in common with most other malting firms in Newark at that time.’, MERL 'Handwritten accession' form (Museum of English Rural Life) – ‘A basket (or skep) used in malthouses for transferring barley from the cistern to the working floor and green malt from floor to kiln. This one has rope and sleds for dragging it over the floor. An alternative arrangement in some malthouses was to hang the baskets in a sling and move it by a pulley suspended from a rail along the ceiling.’

Wood, willow, white, Leather, Fibre, Wood, Metal

Nottinghamshire College of Agriculture (Agent)
Lawrence, Karen (Recorder)
O'Sullivan, Annemarie (Recorder)