Interior. Selection of wooden forks (grapes). Digital image of A 33437.

Description Interior. Selection of wooden forks (grapes). Digital image of A 33437.

Date 1984

Catalogue Number SC 738412

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of A 33437

Scope and Content Three wooden grapes (forks) used in the maltings, Glenkinchie Distillery, Pencaitland, East Lothian Glenkinchie Distillery was established in 1837 by brothers John and George Rate, who went bankrupt in 1853 leading to the closure of the site and its reuse as a cowshed. In 1880 the Glen Kinchie Distillery Company rebuilt the premises, and production began once more. The floor maltings were last used in 1968, and now house a museum of malting. The distillery continues to produce whisky for Haig's blends. This shows three wooden forks of varying designs which would have once been used to turn and aerate the germinating grains of barley as they lay on the maltings floor. Wooden forks and shovels were used instead of metal to prevent the delicate grains from being cut. Turning malt by hand with ploughs, forks (grapes) and shovels (sheils) was hard work, often resulting in a repetitive strain injury known as 'monkey shoulder'. Saladin boxes (invented in 19th-century France) with motorised malt-turners, and more modern drum maltings and combined germinating and drying-kilns have now replaced most traditional floor maltings. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap