Sunday 18 March 2012

Mothers Day at the Malthouse Project, Bury St Edmunds

  

The Malthouse Project is a unique attraction in central Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.  The building itself is a restored old maltings which dates back to the 17th Century.  The project itself is publicly funded and run by Genesis Housing Association who strive to house homeless or unsuitably housed people and giving those who have been excluded from mainstream education and training a second chance to train and experience voluntarily in our community cafe, The Kiln Cafe, which is run by Simon Johnson.  You can take a self led tour of the building following numbered posters.  

To give you an example of what you can expect please read through this blog which gives you details of what the malthouse has to offer and some pictures so you can get a real feeling for this lovely building.  To the left is one of the numbered posters and picture of the kiln shutter.  This shutter was used to cover the gap through which the grain was shovelled onto, and off the kiln floor.  It would then be shut to ensure that the heat from the kiln did not come back into the rest of the building and affect the starch process.  To the right is how it looks today with the original shutter still in place, and through the window you can see where the kiln was, which today houses the Kiln Cafe. Just one of the points of interest to view!

When visiting the building (see picture above) you will find ample parking in the large car-park and some disabled parking right outside the building.  There is also accessible public transport available within minutes walk.  You will enter through the door in the centre of the building.  This leads you through a wide hallway to the reception area where someone is always on hand to see to your requirements.  If you are taking a self led tour of the building then this is where you will start.

The building is totally wheelchair accessible and has lovely wide hallways for good manoeuvring.  You will take a left from reception and follow the hallway down.  At the bottom of this hallway are the disabled toilets and baby changing area, to the right are the ladies & gent and to the left you will find the Kiln Cafe entrance from inside the building.  You can then turn around and follow the posters which eventually lead upstairs.  Right next to the stairs you will find a wheelchair accessible self driven lift.  This will take you to the next floor and meets you at the top of the stairs.  Halfway up these stairs you can view the beautiful original shutter door to the window, this can also be seen when you use the lift as this is glass.  You then follow this hallway round reading  more posters and viewing more original interesting items from the original building.

On this level is the Heritage room and in here you can view original items on display in our Bespoke cabinet.  The items were found whilst the building was being renovated.  Each item is labeled so if your not sure what it is you will be!  Also within this room is the original grain door.  The two upper growing floors are linked by this small door in the dividing wall. It has a hole in the lower panel, which was used by the malthouse cat, whose job was to patrol the building and rid it of the rats.  Rat holes can be seen at various places throughout the building in the old timber wall planking  These items make very interesting viewing and you can take a rest in this room and maybe have a cup of tea and some cheese and biscuits.  This room is also available for venue hire.

At the end of the corridor there are 6 steps leading up to the beamed room.  Beside these steps is another lift to allow wheelchair access to this room.  Again it is easily hand operated although if you require any assistance then there are staff around the building who would be more than willing to assist you.  Opposite these steps are the disabled toilets which also include a large wet room.  There are also ladies & gents toilets situated at the other end of the corridor.  When you enter the beamed room you may well need to bob your head through the original entrance doorway as it is very low.



This lovely open, bare beamed room is used in many different ways.  It is used to hold in-house functions such as Mothers Day and quiz nights and can be hired for conference meetings or even children's parties.  Please speak to Simon on the email or telephone number below to find out more about hiring this fantastic room.  There are lots of windows within this room giving it a lovely natural light. There is high tech audio visual equipment available in this room and the heritage room alike.  All your catering can be organised in house through the Kiln Cafe staff and volunteers so you can be certain to enjoy freshly prepared food at a very reasonable cost whilst helping the charity.



Once you have finished your self led tour you can go back down the stairs (or via the lift) to the ground floor and into the Kiln Cafe.  This can also be entered from the front of the building to the left through the glass door.  Here you will be greeted by a friendly face and seated within the original kiln where there are still some original stones from the kiln on the floor to this day.  You will be served by a volunteer and your food will be freshly prepared while you wait.  The menu offers a varied choice from home made scones to a variety of panini's all very fairly priced.  Please see the link below for the full menu available.


Mothers Day 2012

On Sunday 18th March, Mothers Day 2012 myself, my son Hadleigh, my mum Shirley and my dad Paul went to the malthouse to have our Mothers Day lunch.  When we arrived we parked right outside the building and went through the open door.  There was a large board outside which showed us through and up to the beamed room.  The tables were laid out beautifully with delicate yellow table cloths complemented with little vases of daffodil's.  We were greeted by one of the volunteers, Sam and shown to our table.  Once we were settled our orders were taken from the wonderful menu.  We all chose to have pate & toast for starter and I chose to have both pork & lamb and my mum, dad and Hadleigh chose the roast chicken, which was wrapped in bacon and stuffed with stuffing for our main courses.  The food was served excellently and timed perfectly.  The meat was served on the plate and the beautiful roast potatoes were served separately so you could help yourself.  For vegetables there was cauliflower, broccoli, corn on the cob, and carrots all beautifully presented in a large white oval dish and it looked absolutely perfect. There was more than enough for all of us and it was absolutely delicious.  Once the plates were cleared and we had a few minutes for our food to go down we were bought the beautiful sweet trolley, wow! Chocolate  fudge cake, lemon cheese cake, Bundt cake, fruit salad........ the list goes on, it was a very hard choice, especially for Hadleigh but in the end my dad and myself chose the chocolate fudge cake, my mum had the lemon cheesecake and Hadleigh chose the fruit salad.  They were all absolutely delicious and we all felt rather full after all that!  We were then served teas and coffees with a mint.  There was no rush at all to leave and the atmosphere was lovely.  There was low music playing which  I believe was war music with Glen Miller and alike, lovely for the mums to relax too!  Nothing was too much trouble, you need a drink? Just ask!  At the end of the meal my mum and myself were presented with a Mother's day present which was a little glass vase with some beautifully coloured Hyacinth's wrapped in clear cellofane in a lovely gift bag.  The aroma from them was wonderful and what a lovely little extra suprise for us Mums to end the perfect afternoon.  I would recommend this or any other organised event at the malthouse, the food really is incredible, just like Mum would make ;)  For more information on up and coming events at the malthouse please click on the link below.

The wonderful staff having their well deserved dinner at the end.

Downstairs entrance to wheelchair accessible lift

Upstairs entrance to wheelchair accessible lift

Original window shutter halfway up the stairs

To view this beautiful accessible building, visit the Kiln cafe, make a booking, hire one of the function rooms or for more information please contact Simon by one of the means below and he will be more than happy to assist you with your enquiry.

Address:         The Malthouse Project
                       8 Elsey's Yard
                       Bury St Edmunds
                       Suffolk
                       IP33 3AA

Telephone:      01284 732550

Email:              malthouse@genesisha.org.uk

Web:               www.genesisha.org.uk








The original Malthouse in the 17th centuary


















No comments:

Post a Comment