Alton Maltings
Designed and developed to serve two purposes, Alton Maltings is the central location for Harvest Church and also a welcoming place to serve and resource the wider community.
Since 2005 the centre has fulfilled that purpose. It hosts our weekly church meeting and many activities undertaken by the church. We welcomes through our door community support groups, including the Alton Stroke Recovery Group and the Cardiac Rehab Charity and community groups including NCT groups and the Citizens Advice Bureau. Alton Maltings also plays host to many businesses and government departments that use the venue for training, conferences and meetings.
Visit Alton Maltings websiteA little history...
The original Alton Maltings building dates from circa 1850 and served the local brewing community that has recently vanished from the town centre. The Maltings building was left unused and unmaintained, leaving it to fall in to a state of disrepair which meant that towards the end of the last century the survival of the building was at great risk.
The leadership of Harvest Church (then Alton Evangelical Free Church), was invited to acquire the site to fulfill its desire to serve the community better with a building that would eventually benefit the whole community. In 1995 the site was bought and specialist building consent acquired - specialist because the Maltings is a grade II listed building because of the beams used. These beams were originally used in the Man of War naval ships of the 17th century!
The design brief was to create a flexible space that would be welcoming, able to support the church with its activities and be a facility to serve our wider community..
The result is the fantastic realisation of a dream that took ten years and millions of pounds of funding. Today Alton Maltings is the only local venue that can cater for conferences & performances with 400 seats, including upto 7 break out rooms from 10-150 in capacity, with onsite catering and enough space to even house children's bouncy castle parties indoors.
You might think that this is the end of the story. It is not! While the church has done an amazing job to restore a historically relevant feature of the local community, there remains a section of the building that is still in need of renovation. The 'North End', partitioned off from daily use, sits untouched, with original features waiting to be brought back to life. The community that uses the building is working to realise the dream of completing the transformation of a building that when purchased lay under dirt, rubble and the remnants of years of neglect.