The Icknield Series soil type first breaks out on the East Yorkshire / Lincolnshire coast, then plunges down through Norfolk and Suffolk, heading for the Thames Valley. Here it splits, trickling both across the top, and the bottom, of the South Downs, at the same time generously spilling across Hampshire and Wiltshire on its way down to the Dorset coast.

This is a light, free working soil where barley crops can be easily established in late September (winter varieties) or very early in the spring (February / early March). The topsoil is sufficiently pervious to limit fertility, ensuring low nitrogen grain and the chalk subsoil maintains enough moisture from the winter rains to sustain crop establishment throughout the warm dry springs.

This ensures optimum establishment for yield, and a growth pattern that maintains ahead of the seasonal curve, ensuring an early harvest when the days remain hot, long, and dry.

The Icknield Series is quite the best soil type within the UK for malting barley production