OTHER
TRADERS WITHIN THE PORT
BREWERIES,
MALTINGS AND PUBLIC HOUSES
MALT SHOVEL
INN AND MALTINGS
The Malt Shovel
Inn and the adjacent corbelled building on the Wharf were built by Humphrey
Moore in 1799. The Moore's were a local farming family but in addition
to working the land Humphrey rented part of a quarry from the Holden's
of Aston and carried stone from Weston Cliff to mend the flood defences
at Derwentmouth and the copings of the canal. In 1811 he borrowed money
from Mr Holden to build a tramway from the Aston plaster pit to the canal
and he also bought the plot of land later known as Millfield from Mr Burgin.
Humphrey
died in April 1816 leaving legacies totalling £1640 to nephews and
nieces. His nephew George took over the buildings on the wharf and sold
the contents which from the auctioneers advert in the Derby Mercury we
know included brewing vessels. A map of the same year confirms that
the corbelled building started life as a brewery. In the will George is
described as a maltster and as the brewing implements were sold perhaps
the building now continues as a maltings or malt warehouse.
Humphrey
is not gone, however, as George Gilbert tells us the story of Humphrey’s
ghost haunting the building, a tale dating from George's childhood in the
1820s which caused him to "whistle as loudly as ever I could whenever I
had to pass it". George also tells us that until the Baptist Chapel was
built on the Wharf the house attached was used to hold services and the
Sunday School classes.
By 1852
the properties are owned by William Clarke who is running the Malthouse
himself, letting out the house which later becomes the Malt Shovel to William
Bancroft, a boatbuilder and a storeroom to Mary Cope who runs the New Inn.
Throughout
the latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries the building was a
brewhouse and never listed as a public house or inn in the local trade
directories. For some years it was called the Dew Drop and the first mention
of it as the Malt Shovel seems to be the 1891 census when the publican
is Joseph Cope. We know from a Trust Deed of 1923 that the "Malt
house or Malt Office now unoccupied" and the beerhouse, the Malt Shovel
Inn were owned by Zachary Smith and Co., whose brewery was across the canal.
Zachary lived at Broughton House. Smiths Brewery was taken over by Marston's
and so to the present day.
More information,
photographs, maps and the full text of the 1816 advert, George Gilbert’s
memories of the beerhouse and Humphrey’s ghost and a fuller story of Zachary
Smith’s Brewery are on display at the Centre. Use the links below for more
information.
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