The new corporation quickly added a new byelaw to the 132 passed in 1607. Thatch was prohibited as a roofing material in the town as it was blamed for allowing the wind to spread fire and "disperse itself into so many places". The modern legacy of this fire is that the east and centre of the historic grid pattern of the town no longer contains property older than 1608, whereas many properties to the west side still retain medieval structures hidden within them.

The latest writ also gave other new privileges to the town's council. The Court of Record was now extended from £50 a case to £200, and a Court Leet set up for dealing with items of good order such as weights and measures. There was also a new right to have a Coroner. Every retiring Alderman would be the Coroner for one year.

At last Bury had become a fully functioning self-governing borough with the powers it needed to run its own affairs. The justices also controlled malting and brewing and all leather buckets needed to be approved and registered.

The illustration is of a printed petition of Henry Plumton of Ousden, Suffolk, although here it is spelled Owsden. He is requesting charitable assistance after a fire destroyed his maltings at Chevington and 'at least four hundred combes of good malt and barley'.

Plumton had lost not only his own business, but had also not paid for the barley which was destroyed. He estimated his loss at £300, and would be imprisoned if he could not raise the money. A list of locally prominent people attested to his loss in the petition.

Ashley's list of charges for moving loads along the new navigation are shown here. As usual, click on the thumbnail to enlarge it. He shows two lists on the page. One is for delivering the goods from Mildenhall Mill to Eastgate Bridge, "according to the Act of Parliament", and is on the left hand side of the page. The list on the right is for deliveries to "the present landing place in the parish of Fornham St Martin." Coal, timber, wool, salt and grain are at the head of the lists, possibly reflecting the expected traffic somewhat.

Next door, across Crown Street, stood Wright's Brewery. There had been a Brewery in Westgate Street, Bury St Edmunds, throughout the 18th Century, owned by three generations of the Wright family.

The Universal Directory of Britain was published in 1791, covering places in England and Wales. It was published by the patentees of the idea, at the British Directory Office, Ave Maria Lane, London. Volume II contains entries for Bury St Edmunds, and refers to events in 1792, and so must have been published no earlier than this year. It took five volumes in all to complete.

After listing the Gentry, the Clergy, the Physicians and the Lawyers, the Directory went on to Traders etc.. These were all listed alphabetically by surname, giving their trade, but no address was given. First listed was "Apsey Michael, (F.) Ironmonger", and "F" denoted a Freeman of the Borough. Six maltsters were listed. A few examples included the following:

• Apsey Michael, (F.) Ironmonger
• Cook, John (F) Maltster
• Carss, Robert (F) Banker
• Chaplin Thomas and William, Watchmakers
• Deck Philip, Postmaster
• Hailstone, James, Maltster
• Hunt John, Walking Post
• Jaques Robert (F) Maltster
• Leech, Henry (F) Maltster
• Lumley and Gudgeon, Watchmakers
• Middleditch James, Maltster
• Oakes James (F) Yarn Maker
• Oliver Laver, (F) Auctioneer
• Pearsall, Thomas (F) Gunsmith
• Parker, Benjamin (F) Gunsmith
• Paul George, Ironmonger
• Rogers Robert, (F) Silversmith
• Roberts John, Watchmaker
• Spink John (F) & Carss, Bankers
• Steward, Henry, Maltster
• Singleton Thomas (F) Stonecutter
• Thomson John (F) Silversmith
• Tilbrook John (F) Silversmith
• Tickell John Nathan, Gunsmith
• Warren Thomas, Parish Clerk

In 1792 John Clark had taken over the Capital Brewery in St Andrews Street which was next door neighbour to Oakes's now redundant comb shops. In order to expand his brewery he needed more space, and he probably needed more staff. Either in 1799 or some time in the next two years he would engage Benjamin Greene from Bedford as an assistant brewer on a three year contract. Greene would go on to found the firm which eventually became Greene King, but this seems to be the only tenuous link that the firm of Greene King can have with 1799.

The malt duty returns show that Suffolk was the county making the most bushels of malt in 1801/1802.

In 1821 there were three large breweries in Bury, by the standards of the time. These were breweries which made beer to sell, not only to the public, but to other public houses and inns for resale. These were called Common Brewers, as opposed to the many inns and large houses, where beer was brewed for consumption on the premises. These Common Brewers were as follows:-

• The Brewery of Stutter and Gallant in Guildhall Street (previously the Capital Brewery)
• Buck and Greene's Westgate Brewery
• Henry Braddock's Southgate Brewery

One of the biggest of the independent maltsters was Maulkins, which was in St Mary's Square, not far from the Westgate brewery. Several local inns would buy in malt and brew their own beer for sale on and off the premises, a practice which would continue for many years yet.

A major cholera outbreak began in Britain and continued into 1831. It took ten years for the link to insanitary drinking water to be accepted.

By 1830, the so called Gin Palaces were such places of drunkenness and ill repute, that an attempt was made to curb gin drinking by encouraging beer drinking. Government took the tax off beer. Beer was at this time very much an everyday drink - even children drank so called small beer - and it was seen by those among the evangelical and temperance movements as very much a secondary evil.

Farmers were also keen on beer production as it required malt from their barley in its production. Brewers and Hop growers would also expect to benefit from an increase in beer drinking.

So the Duke of Wellington's government brought in the Beerhouse Act in 1830. The idea was to allow householders to set up beerhouses at home for the sale of beer or cider, merely by paying a two guinea fee. The duty of nine shillings and two pence on a barrel of beer was abolished as an encouragement. Greenes brewery was reckoned to have increased its output by 50% in the year after the new Act.

Before 1830, all inns had to provide accommodation, refreshments and stabling for travellers by law. The Beerhouse Act removed this obligation. It was possible for a family to start a beerhouse in their front room, entirely within the law. Not surprisingly this put a great pressure of competition on the old coaching inns, which tended to decline.

In Bury a meeting of innkeepers was called to discuss the new Act in the Three Kings inn, which stood in the Cornhill, near the Market Cross. Perhaps aware of the consequences of the Act, and being little that could be done about it, only 13 Bury Innkeepers turned up. The Three Kings became a branch of Montague Burton's Tailors in 1933.

Over the next few years many new beerhouses started in Bury such as the Spread Eagle in Out Westgate in 1831, the Butchers Arms in Field Lane (Kings Road) in 1839, the Dove in Hospital Road, also in the late 1830's, the Black Girl in Guildhall Street in 1836, set up cheekily next door to the Black Boy, the Jolly Wagoners in Cotton Lane in the 1830's, and so on. Beerhouses continued to be set up freely until controls returned in 1869.

In 1830 Pigot's published their first Directory of Suffolk. This listed each town in the County, describing their history, local gentry and professions, and their tradesmen. Bury is described as "on the western bank of the river Bourne or Larke." Tellingly, it says, "The corporation, who are self-elected...."

Unlike the 1791 Universal Directory, tradesmen were listed by category, so that all Bankers, for example, were listed together. In addition the address of each person was included. House numbers were included and this must have been one of the first occasions on which this was possible. Numbering was just starting to be adopted as national practice. Larger cities had used numbering since the 1790s. The Maltsters recorded in Pigot's Directory were

• Henry Braddock Southgate Street
• Samuel Cooper malted at 16 Long Brackland
• William Fenton at Southgate Street,
• Benjamin Greene 1 Westgate Street
• Robert Johnson 54 Guildhall Street
• Thomas Harmer jun. at 70 Westgate Street
• James R Harvey, 59 Churchgate Street
• E E Leece at Long Brackland
• Robert Maulkin at 10 St Mary's Square.
• Elizabeth Lucy Steel was at 64 Guildhall Street
• John Steele at 9 Risbygate Street

• Braddock, Henry, Southgate Street
• Greene, Benjamin, 1 Westgate Street

The malting season was up to 8 months a year, as summer temperatures made the process impossible to control. An efficient maltster was making three steeps a fortnight.

A quarter of barley was 448 pounds in weight, or 4 hundredweight, (cwts) and 5 quarters of barley made one ton.

A malthouse recently built in Ipswich in 1836 for a 20 quarter steep was advertised with a working floor of 3,000 square feet, (150 feet by 20 feet) and a plate kiln. Thes houses were usually only on one floor. It would be another thirty years before malthouses with two or three floors became common.

The River Lark was navigable to this point and there was a large Maltings just along the Fornham Road, so customers for the Tollgate Inn nearby were not lacking despite its out of town location.

Payne recorded a dozen maltsters in Bury. Two of the largest were Henry McL'Roth and Robert Maulkin. They owned 11 public houses between them, and 12 others were owner occupied. Maulkin was the largest maltster in the town owning six town pubs and two more in the surrounding countryside.

The brewers Greene and Braddock only owned 3 between them. Bury had 54 inns and public houses, and at this time only 20 of them did not brew their own beer on the premises.

Three brewers were listed. These were

• Henry Braddock of 80 Southgate Street
• Edward Greene of Westgate Street
• Henry Everard in Westgate Street

• Henry Braddock malting at 80 Southgate Street
• William Fenton at Southgate Street,
• John Clarke at number 74 Risbygate Street,
• John Steele at 9 Risbygate Street
• Robert Clarke at 2 Meat Market
• Samuel Cooper malted at 26 Long Brackland
• Edward Eugene Lease at 184 Long Brackland
• Edward Greene was in Westgate Street
• Thomas Harmer at 70 and a half Westgate Street
• George Beeton at 10 St Mary's Square.
• Thomas Moore MacLeroth was at 64 Guildhall Street, and
• Humphrey Steggles at 51 Churchgate Street.

White's Directory recorded four brewers in Bury St Edmunds. These were

• Henry Braddock of 107 Southgate Street
• John Clarke of 74 Risbygate Street
• Edward Greene of Westgate Street
• James Waldwine of 28 St Johns Street

Clarke's brewery continued up to 1917, when Harry Clarke would sell out to Greene King. After 1887 Clarke's would be the only remaining serious competitor to Greene King in Bury.

There were 12 people listed as Maltsters, including the best known names, Braddock, Clarke, Greene and Maulkin.
The Maltsters were:-

• Henry Braddock malting at 107 Southgate Street
• William Fenton at 71 Southgate Street, and
• Ann Goldin at 110 Southgate Street.
• John Clarke was at number 74 Risbygate Street
• John Hayward Guy at 12 Risbygate Street and
• James Lee at 27 Risbygate Street.
• Isaac Cooper malted at 17 St Johns Street, and
• Edward E Lease at 53 St Johns Street.
• Edward Greene was in Westgate Street, with
• Robert Maulkin nearby at 10 St Mary's Square.
• Hannah MacLeroth was at 64 Guildhall Street, and
• Humphrey Steggles at 51 Churchgate Street.

It may be noted that the 1839 directory gave Cooper's address as 26 Long Brackland, and Lease's address as 184 Long Brackland. In reality they had not moved. In 1842 Long Brackland was renamed St Johns Street, and subsequently re-numbered.

In 1845 Edward Greene built a new and extensive Maltings in Bridewell Lane. He had already been renting other maltings in Bury, but this new one outstripped them all. It was the first increase in area that the brewery had received since Buck and Greene began in 1805. These maltings, known as School Maltings, continued in use until 2003/04 when they were converted into housing. The ground was bought from the Guildhall Feoffees, adjacent to their school.
Greene also reorganised his brewery to increase production capacity, and sold off 30 hogsheads and other brewing equipment which he had replaced.

Much of the land at the Fornham Wharf had been coalyards, and most of the tonnage on the river had been coal. The Ipswich to Bury railway line had been delivering coal right into Bury St Edmunds at Northgate Street since December 1846. Thomas Ridley had rented a coal warehouse from Sir Thomas at Fornham Wharf, but he no longer required its use. Sir Thomas probably did not have the money, or the inclination, to redevelop the site himself, so he let it to Robert and John Dunnell, who built a large new Malt House on the site.

This is what the White's Directory of Suffolk for 1855 said about it.;

"Sir T R Gage, Bart, is lord of the manor (of Fornham All Saints), but part of the soil belongs to Sir T G Cullum, Bart, on whose estate, at the south-west angle of the parish,1 mile N. of Bury, is a commodious Wharf, at the termination of the Lark Navigation, ... and a large Malting House, built in 1851."

Across Bridewell Lane Greene also built the Foundry Maltings, facing Westgate Street, but next to the School maltings.

Edward Greene also now extended his business into farming. He leased Stone Bridge Farm in Bury from Lady Cullum of Hardwick, for a twelve year term. At first its 138 acres provided extra fodder for the brewery horses, but it became more integrated into the business. The farm could provide some malting barley, as well as fodder, and spent grains from the brewery could in turn go to feed the animals. The labour could also be shared between brewhouse and farm.

"BODY'S PATENT CORN SCREEN effectually separates all thin corns, stones, seeds, etc. from either barley, wheat, or sanfoin, and produces a sample that enables the merchant or farmer to obtain the highest market price for his corn. "

Whether Boby had initially aimed his corn screen at maltsters is debateable, but very quickly he discovered that this could become a lucrative market. His advertising now spoke to maltsters directly.

"To maltsters it is invaluable, as the duty on malt renders it necessary they should pay only on the best barley.

• Screen No. 2, 50 bushels per hour. £7-0-0
• Screen No. 1, 90 bushels per hour. £9-0-0
• Stone separator, extra. £1-10-0
• Screen No. 3, 150 bushels per hour. £15-15-0 "

Gradually Robert Boby would come to make many different items specifically for the malting trade. No doubt his connections to the local brewer, Edward Greene, produced many ideas in this direction.

On 31st August 1860, the creditors of James Garrod sold the Home Maltings to Robert Boby. Home Maltings had been part of the premises of the Capital Brewery (Buckley and Garnish) which had opened in 1791 and closed a year later, passing to John Clark. It then became owned by Stutter and Gallant, (1813 to 1844) and then to James Garrod, a common carrier. Garrod got into financial difficulties and the Trustees for his creditors arranged the sale. Boby paid £900, and it is interesting to note that there were three current occupiers listed in the deed, being Grayston, Burrell and Boby himself.

In 1862 Lord Manners sold Fornham Park and the Fornham St Genevieve estate for £85,000 to William Gilstrap, who, in 1868, would also buy about one third of the parish of Fornham All Saints. Sir William Gilstrap (1816-1896), was a native of Newark upon Trent, in Nottinghamshire, and was a well known benefactor of that town. He had made his fortune in the malting industry, and he wanted the Park in Fornham St Genevieve for its sporting value. He does not seem to have had any involvement with any maltings in Suffolk.

Fred King, who had married into the Maulkin Malting dynasty, and now ran the Maulkin business in St Mary's Square, announced in the Bury and Norwich Post newspaper, on June 16th, that he intended to take up the Brewing business. He wrote that he had entered into partnership for the venture with Francis Phillips, late of the Stowmarket Brewery, and that he was looking for premises.

Fred King was aged 40 in 1868, when he built the brand new St Edmunds Brewery in Sparhawk Street, towering over Greene's Brewery only a few yards away in Westgate Street, Bury St Edmunds. It started producing beer at Easter, 1869, and they were acknowledged to be very good beers. King's stout was especially good.

The Maulkins also owned 6 pubs in town, like the Ram in Eastgate Street, giving a ready made outlet for King's beer. King was a shrewd man with 11 children to support, and began to buy up more pubs after 1870. He became stiff competition for Greene's business.

Just before the new controls came into force the Britannia Inn was built in Ipswich Street. This was a purpose built beerhouse, wrapped around the corner of Ipswich Street and Long Brackland.

After 1870 the pattern of the brewing business in Bury St Edmunds changed dramatically. The various new controls on licensed premises brought in in 1869, stopped the free trade in licenses. Brewers needed some way to tie in their customers in the new restricted market. Elsewhere in England this did not really have much effect until around 1880, but in Bury, Greene's brewery had a dangerous new competitor in Fred King's St Edmunds Brewery, which had been producing beer for just a year, but was being well received by the public.
From 1870 to 1880 Fred King bought 40 inns, pubs, and beerhouses, and tied them all to buying his beer.

Edward Greene had always preached the virtues of Free Trade, and in the past had always sold off any pubs that he had acquired. Now he saw that conditions had changed, and over the next ten years he also acquired 44 new pubs, the first being the Dog and Partridge, next to his brewery yard. With his own time being short, and his son Walter spending most of his time hunting to hounds, Edward also brought his nephew, Edward Lake into the firm in 1869. Lake was to prove a most valuable addition in the next few years, becoming a partner by 1876.

Jesse Gough was born in Gawcott, Buckinghamshire on 16th June 1832. He married his wife Elizabeth Salmon in 1855. They left for Australia in May 1855, where Jesse worked in a store and made friends with a Charles Smith. They then started up a maltings business in Melbourne.

Jesse sold his part of the Melbourne maltings to a Thomas Burston in late 1869. This Thomas Burston (who traded under his father's name of Sam Burston), and Charles Smith went into partnership with a Mr Mitchell. They opened a new maltings in Melbourne which is still going strong today.

When Jesse Gough returned to England it is probable that the maltings that he opened in Bury was part funded by the Australian company, but the English firm traded as Gough and Co.. He remained in partnership with Charles Smith of Melbourne, Australia, until 1879, when that partnership was formally dissolved.

In 1870 Jesse Gough also acquired a large site on Thingoe Hill, behind the railway station. The 1880s OS survey map shows two malthouses on this site. These appear to be part of Gough's purchase at this time. Presumably these old malthouses were destined to be replaced by a more modern house to be designed by Mr A Grimwood for Jesse Gough.

The Brewers listed were as follows:-

• Bishop, RA and C of 65 Guildhall Street, (at the Saracens Head)
• Clarke, John, of 62 Risbygate Street
• Greene E and Son, of Westgate Brewery
• King Frederick W, Westgate Street
• Lock Alfred, 92 St Johns Street
• Phillips Brothers Northgate Street; and Stowmarket

• Clarke, John, of 62 Risbygate Street
• Cooper, Boby and Co, Railway Depot; and Stowmarket
• Gough Jesse & co, Out Northgate
• Newson P H 71 Risbygate Street
• Prentice Thomas, Town Hall, Meat Market
• Wing Charles of 10 St Andrew Street North; and Hawstead

"The Rink malting, erected by L Jackaman from designs by Mr H F Bacon, architect, of Bury, has been only recently constructed on the site of the old Skating Rink."

By 1884, the Westgate Brewery had six maltings, all producing different malts to suit the different beers produced at the time. The Westgate Brewery now looked as it does in this picture, which is in the Greene King Museum. The Rink Maltings of 1880 is visible on College Street, with the 1855 malt house beyond it. The garden of Fred King's house and brewery premises on St Mary's Square is visible in the bottom right hand corner.

In October 1880 the Malt Tax was abolished. This was a watershed in the history of the Malting industry.

One result of this tax had been on the technology that could be used. For example the steeping cisterns previously had to be built flat bottomed, only 40 inches deep, and with 48 inches above it. This constrained its usage to be a manual operation requiring much labour. After 1880 steeping cisterns could be built with hopper bottoms which enabled gravity assisted emptying and thus could be on upper floors.

The newspaper also pointed out that there were three large maltings near the Northgate Station of the Great Eastern Railway. One was on the north side of the station, belonging to Mr Jesse Gough, and two others were on the other side of the railway line and to the east of Northgate Road. (Now known as Out Northgate)

These premises were owned by William Rednall, and were leased to two sets of occupiers. The building closest to Northgate Street was occupied as a maltings by James Fison of Ipswich. The remaining buildings were leased by the partnership of Boby and Gough as maltings, barley store and malt stores.

Flames were seen at 7pm on Friday night and Gough and Boby's foreman, a Mr Parish of Etna Road, just nearby, was called. He sent word to the police who called out the Suffolk Alliance Fire Office and its fire brigade. In less than half an hour the buildings were ablaze end to end, with five storeys on fire. The brigade now concentrated upon trying to save Fison's Maltings from the fire, in which they succeeded. Firemen had to stay on site through to Sunday night in case of the ashes re-igniting.

The Handbook referred to the town's "distinguished Grammar School, an excellent Commercial School, a High School for Girls, a Wesleyan, and several private schools."

"There are but few manufactures; the principal being that of Malt."

• Maltsters Gough; Boby; and Fison each had large maltings near the Northgate Railway station.
• Messrs Greene and King had their maltings near their breweries in Westgate Street and St Mary's Square.
• Robert Boby's St Andrews Works was making its famed Self Cleaning Corn Screening and Dressing Machine, having produced over 11,000 units. It had also produced 7,000 Haymakers.
• Mr G Cornish had "another considerable iron foundry in Risbygate Street."

Greene's Westgate Brewery was given four pages to itself, as the largest brewery in the town, but King's St Edmund's Brewery was second, followed by The Saracen's head, the Golden Lion and the Risbygate Breweries. The 'History' had to add an addendum at the final page to mark the merger of Greene and King, which had been announced in May.

Despite the rise of the big brewer, beer was also still brewed at the Saracen's Head and the Golden Lion, both in Guildhall Street. Most publicans were by now taken over by one of the breweries, and so they took beer from their proprietor brewer. The Saracen's Head building was occupied for many years by the British Legion Club, but by 2012 it became the Hunter Club. In Risbygate Street, Clarke's Brewery was also operating, having been started in 1848.

Greene King bought out the Newmarket Brewery of Miss Moody, together with her 10 public houses, for £22,500. Greene King's Managing Director, Edward Lake, was made Mayor of Bury for the third time, having previously been mayor in 1886 and 1892.

In Bury St Edmunds and Leeds, R & G Boby and Chapman set up a registered company to trade in malt with share capital of £45,000.

In 1898 the Rating assessment of Greene King's brewery was increased by 75%. The assessment was in the hands of the Board of Poor Law Guardians, and they noted that the brewery was more than prospering, and that there had been no increase in their assessment for a decade.

The significance of this picture is that it shows goods waggons outside the maltings on the railway spur specifically built to serve the maltings.

In Kelly's Directory of Suffolk for 1900, the following were listed as Maltsters in Bury St Edmunds:

• Bishop and Co at 65 Guildhall Street
• Clarke Brothers, at 87 Risbygate Street
• Girardot and Co Limited at Northgate Maltings, Bury and Woodbridge and Brentwood
• Jesse Gough and Sons, Northgate St Bury; GER station Stowmarket; and Bures St Mary RSO
• Green, King and Sons, Bury ale stores, Station Rd Stowmarket & Westgate Brewery, Bury
• J Hearn and Son, Southgate Street, Bury and Beyton
• James Rolfe and sons 48 St Andrews Street South, Bury
• T H Wenn and Co, Tayfen Road, Bury
• C Wing 10 St Andrews Street North, Bury

• George Abbot at Boxted
• Walter Clarke at Great Welnetham
• John Goodchild at Kedington
• George King at Hartest
• Oliver Brothers Sudbury Brewery
• Parker Brothers Lark Roller Mills, Mildenhall, Icklingham and Barton Mills
• R & W Paul Lim. Bury Street, Stowmarket, Paul's Quay Ipswich, Little Stonham. Stowmarket and Woodbridge
• Thomas Prentice Stowmarket and Ipswich
• Walter Savage, Stradishall

He built the large Old House and New House maltings on Thingoe Hill, behind the Bury St Edmunds railway station, and acquired other maltings across East Anglia. While other maltsters had struggled, Gough had flourished, and upon his death his estate was valued at £150,000, a very considerable sum.

When this inn and brewery shut down in 1901, other independent inns like the Coach and Horses in Honey Hill had to get their beer elsewhere. The Coach and Horses now bought beer from Hudson's Brewery in Cambridge. The Coach was ideally located to serve the courts, and both witnesses and barristers were often to be found there.

The text was written by Horace Barker, and amongst other observations on Bury St Edmunds he wrote that the the depression in agriculture had impaired the town's former prosperity. But it still had considerable corn and cattle markets. There were several large maltings, including Gough's, Girardot's, and Boby's as well as Greene King's own for its brewery.

The Golden Lion was one of the many inns which closed down in the early years of this century. It stood at 57 Guildhall Street, between today's British Legion club and Westgate Street. Like the Saracens Head it had also housed a sizeable brewery, reaching back to St Andrews Street. Some of these brewery buildings were only redeveloped into housing as late as 2004/05, but had enjoyed many other uses in between. In the late 19th century, J A Simmonds had proudly advertised his Golden Lion brewery in the 1889 Wilkin's Almanac as to the "gratifying reports from ...the public analyst at Ipswich", and that he was "Contractor to the Suffolk General Hospital."

• J Gough and Sons, Bury and Fornham All Saints
• Greene, King and Sons Ltd, Westgate Brewery & Bury ale stores, Station Road, Stowmarket
• H A & D Taylor Ltd Out Northgate
• T H Wenn and Co Tayfen Road

The malt industry response was to revive the long forgotten Maltsters Association of Great Britain, wwhich had ceased to exist when the malt tax was repealed in 1880. This gave them an official collective voice with which to approach government to plead their cause.

During April 1917 the brewery of the Clarke Brothers of Risbygate Street in Bury was taken over by Greene King's Brewery. Clarke's Risbygate Brewery had been set up in the 1840's, and by 1917 it was Greene King's only serious competitor in Bury. The old guard of the Greene King brewery Board were by now either dead or in poor health. Likely relatives had joined the army, and around 90 of the workforce had also signed up by now. Edward Lake was left to run the firm without much serious assistance. He wanted to bring in Harry Clarke to run the maltings and barley side of the business. Against some opposition from the family, he persuaded Raymond Greene, MP, to go along with him. Clarkes' were paid £29,615 in shares and stock, and Clarkes Brewery was quickly closed down.
The arrangement included Clarke's 28 public houses like the Kings Arms in Brentgovel Street, but the best inn was the Cupola House, along with its wines and spirits business, owned by Clarke's since 1901.

During the last century the Kings Arms had been another of the important carriers house, and its yard is still visible. This public house, like the Cupola, still survives in 2005.
The Plough inn in Southgate Street had been a drovers inn in the 18th century, but this was less practical during the 19th century as the street became more built up. Greene King had the Sword in Hand on the opposite side of the road and relinquished the license of the Plough.

Edward Lake continued to think about amalgamation as helping with some of the problems of war time production. By December he was engaged in talks with the last two sizeable breweries left in West Suffolk. These were Christmas's of Haverhill and Olivers of Sudbury.
Fairly soon in 1918, Christmas's Brewery plus 49 public houses was bought for £55,000 in cash and War bonds from the trustees of the late F C Christmas.

Olivers Brewery at Sudbury was run by two brothers, but only one was offered a Directorship with Greene King. This made negotiations more difficult. They were paid £69,000 in shares and cash, and the deal included another 51 public houses for the Greene King empire.

At this time Greene King was operating several small individual malthouses. Braddock's old White Hart maltings was still in use. Number 1 malthouse was near the site of todays BMI hospital, located between Sparhawk Street and Southgate Street.

Others were distributed from No 3 in Sparhawk Street next to the barley stores to the Foundry Malthouse fronting Westgate Street and the adjacent Rink Maltings, on the corner of College Street. It was built in 1880 on the site of Mr Robinson's 1876 skating rink. School maltings was next to the Feoffment School.

Len Bridgeman of Nowton Road can remember his father (born in 1874) telling him of his time at the Greene King Maltings, for the first part of his working life he worked in maltings at Mistley, Sudbury and Stowmarket before joining GK as foreman of No 1 Maltings in September 1917.

In July 1919 the Order allowing the use of female labour was revoked. The Maltsters Association, supported by the Brewers Society got the use of women 's labour extended to Summer, 1920. They had relied upon the women during the war and many skilled maltsters had not returned home.

In Kelly's Directory of Suffolk for 1925/26 the following were recorded as maltsters in Bury St Edmunds:

• R W Dewin and Co, Fornham All Saints and Tayfen Road, Bury
• J Gough and Sons, Thingoe Hill, Bury
• H A & D Taylor, Out Northgate, Bury and Fordham Road, Newmarket

It stood derelict for many years until in the 1980s the building was converted into two apartments.

Despite the depression, Greene King purchased Ogden's March Brewery with its 28 freehold and 6 leasehold pubs. The Brewery was shut down, allowing Greene King to take over supplies to the licensed premises around March.

Until 1930 unattended women were not allowed into pubs or restaurants at night. In 1930 the Licensing Laws were changed to put this right.

In Suffolk the price of wheat was at least half the cost of production. The result was described by Justin Brooke:- "Before 1932 thousands of acres of good farm land were left uncultivated. One could motor for miles and see field after field in an abandoned state with thorn bushes springing up where corn once grew; barns were falling down; farmhouses and cottages in a sad state."

Rayments Brewery in Furneaux Pelham had been owned since 1889 by Edward Lake and J M KIng, but all small brewers were finding life very difficult. The brewery was taken over by Greene King in 1931 solely because of the family connections.

However, throughout this time the sales of Greene King's bottled beers continued to increase.

In some cases the beer duty payable was now less than in the period from 1923 to 1930.

At Greene King's Brewery Major Lake had encouraged the workforce to join the Territorial Army, particularly in the late 1930's. With the growing crisis, he found by the summer of 1939 that so many men were away at a fortnight's camp, that women were now introduced into the office for the first time.

Government restrictions continued, and production was curtailed until 1948.

Greene King closed their Panton Brewery in Cambridge, which they had acquired in 1925.

Greene King also took over the small Sudbury Brewery of Mauldon's, with 22 public houses on the Essex border. This brewery was old, and it was agreed to close it down, and supply the pubs from Bury.

This new plant was highly mechanised and on a large scale compared to maltings of the past. It epitomised the transformation of the malting industry from being craft-based to being high technology based This trend would continue with the eventual loss of the few remaining floor maltings. (The Peach owned Gough's Maltings on Thingoe Hill would be one of the very last to succumb.)

In 1968 the well known Pathe News filmed the ABM factory, and declared it the largest malting factory in Europe. This clip can be viewed on their website here: www.britishpathe.com

Paul's was already the second largest UK sales maltster, and now became the largest European malting company with a capacity of 400,000 tonnes a year.

By 1993 this method of floor malting was uncompetitive and totally non-viable and Gough's Maltings were closed down, and demolished in 1994 to 1995.

This gave the Bury St Edmunds complex an additional annual capacity of 100,000 tonnes, bringing it up to 160,000 tonnes, the largest single site in Europe.

Pauls had closed down some small old maltings and by 2010 operated four large maltings, one in Bury St Edmunds, one in Knapton, North Yorkshire and two in Scotland. The business was founded in Ipswich by Robert Paul in around 1842 and is now owned by the French co-operative Axereal, the parent company of Boortmalt.