Case Study 3: The Malt Project, New Cut Arts and the Halesworth & District Museum

The Malt Project was supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The objective was to engage with the community to interpret the Victorian malting industry that once provided much of the wealth of the market town of Halesworth in Suffolk.

Working with the project originator, we linked evidence of what can be seen of the three interpretive elements. The Malt Experience, The Malt Heritage Trail and The Malt Story. As this was a community project, we also suggested designing and building a malt industry today to tell the story of how it improved the town’s trade links (canal, river and railway) and was responsible for the prosperity and growth in its population. We designed the logo and its variants and suggested dividing (and branding) the project into website so that the public could engage and provide feedback throughout its development.

The Malt Experience

CDS assembled a project team of creatives and specialist suppliers, provided a floorplan and visitor flow diagram. We designed and managed the production and installation of a permanent exhibition in the New Cut Arts Centre (a converted Victorian maltings building).

The displays included:

• Wall mounted and free-standing graphic panels featuring reconstruction drawings, diagrams, plans, maps and archive photographs.
• A fly through animated video of the building as it was in the 19th century in which Albert, the building’s maltster, explains the malting process.
• Then and now – a video comparing archive and modern photographs of the same scenes.
• A video drama telling the story of the Halesworth’s prominent malting figures at key moments in the development of the town’s prosperity.
• Low tech interactive elements (lift up flaps, hand bats and revealer wheel).
• An ambient background audio loop featuring sounds of a Victorian malting.
• Oral history audio samples.
• A maltster figure in period costume (life size).
• Dressing up box.
• Wall and table-displays of 19th and 20th century tools and objects related to the malt industry.

The Malt Heritage Trail

CDS provided guidance for the content, word count and position of a series of 10 bespoke town trail panels and suggested the most efficient and cost-effective method of manufacturing process and materials.

We commissioned reconstruction illustrations which were also used in The Malt Experience, on The Malt Project website and for The Malt Story schools' resource materials.

The Malt Story

This was the educational resources part of the project. We worked with an educationalist specialising writing material in line with the National Curriculum. We designed and print managed a series of activity sheets.