The study site

The archaeological site of Sedgeford lies about six km inland from the coast of northwest Norfolk, in East Anglia, UK (Fig. 1). The regional bedrock is Upper Cretaceous Middle Chalk, and the soil type is ‘shallow, lime-rich’ (Chatwin 1961, p 32). Excavation at Sedgeford since 1996 has revealed an extensive early medieval cemetery and a likely settlement area, the latter apparently occupied from the 7th to 11th c. ad; two recent radiocarbon dates here derive from late 8th to late 9th c. ad deposits (Faulkner and Blakelock 2020; McKerracher 2023a). Excavation of an area to the south of the original site (trench 23) revealed a set of features including ovens/kilns and floors, with abundant charred plant material, surmised to represent together a cereal-processing complex. Archaeobotanical assay revealed that many charred grains in this part of the site had germinated prior to charring, fostering the hypothesis that the features denote a malting complex (Wolff 2017). At least three kilns have been clearly identified at the site (several potential kilns remain to be fully excavated), along with a purported steeping tank and a set of clay floors (Fig. 2), features arguably associated with the three stages of malting (steeping, germination and kilning) and thus consistent with a ‘malting complex’ designation.

Fig. 1: Sedgeford and significant local sites. The map includes ‘productive sites’ of NW Norfolk, as identified by Rogerson (2003). These are locations which have produced abundant metal-detector finds, sometimes thought to represent rural market sites (e.g. Ulmschneider 2000). Contains Ordnance Survey Open Data © Crown copyright and database right 2017, under the Open Government licence. Map created with QGIS (www.qgis.org)

Rye grains from each of kilns 1, 2 and 3 were radiocarbon dated in 2019. Dates obtained using Bayesian modelling are, respectively, cal ad 748–770, 734–775 and 772–819 (McKerracher 2023b). Significantly, these reveal that Sedgeford’s is the earliest known malting complex in early medieval Britain and Ireland. Approximately contemporaneous finds including the sizeable malting kiln at Higham Ferrers (Northamptonshire), and potential malting pits at South Hook (Pembrokeshire), are, in each case, not part of a multi-feature complex including steeping tank(s) and germination floor(s) (Hardy et al. 2007; Crane and Murphy 2010). A review of malting buildings in England reveals that excavated malting kilns dating from prehistory until the later medieval era are very rarely accompanied by recognised malting floors or steeping cisterns (Patrick 2023, p 5).

Fig. 2: Aerial photograph of the malting complex, with primary features highlighted, and inset photographs of kilns (Image: Ian Drummond/SHARP 2019. Shared with kind permission)