Oast

They are farm buildings used for drying hops in preparation for the brewing process. They consist of two or three storeys on which the hops were spread out to be dried by hot air from a wood or charcoal-fired kiln at the bottom. The drying floors were thin and perforated to permit the heat to pass through and it escaped through a cowl in the roof which turned with the wind. The freshly picked hops from the fields were raked in to dry and then raked out to cool before being bagged up and sent to the brewery. The Kentish dialect word Kell was sometimes used for kilns ("The oast has three kells.") and sometimes to mean the oast itself ("Take this lunchbox to your father, he's working in the kell.").

The earliest surviving oast house is that at Cranbrook near Tunbridge Wells which dates to 1750 but the process is documented from soon after the introduction of hops into England in the early 16th century. Early oast houses were simply adapted barns but, by the early 19th century, the distinctive circular buildings with conical roofs had been developed in response to the increased demand for beer. Square oast houses appeared early in the 20th century as they were found to be easier to build. In the 1930s, the cowls were replaced by louvred openings as electric fans and diesel oil ovens were employed.

Hops are today dried industrially and the many oast houses on farms have now been converted into dwellings. One of the best preserved oast house complexes is at The Hop Farm Country Park at Beltring.

Hop drying

The purpose of an oast is to dry hops. This is achieved by the use of a flow of heated air through the kiln, rather than a firing process (compare drying your hands under a hand drier against baking in an oven).

Hops were picked in the hop gardens by gangs of pickers, who worked on a piece work basis and earned a fixed rate per bushel. The green hops were put into large hessian sacks called pokes. These would be taken to the oast and brought into the stowage at first floor level. Some oasts had a man-powered hoist for this purpose, consisting of a pulley of some 5 feet (1.52 m) diameter on an axle to which a rope or chain was attached.

The green hops when freshly picked had a moisture content of some 80%, this needed to be reduced to 6%, although the moisture content would subsequently rise to 10% during storage.

The green hops were spread out in the kilns. The floors were generally of 1¼" (32mm) square battens nailed at right angles across the joists, placed so that there was a similar gap between each batten, and covered with a horsehair cloth. The hops would be spread some 12 inches (300 mm) deep, the kiln doors closed and the furnace lit. When the hops were judged to be dried, the furnace would be extinguished and the hops removed from the kiln using a scuppet, which was a large wooden framed shovel with a hessian base. The hops would be spread out on the stowage floor to cool, and would then be pressed into large jute sacks called pockets with a hop press. Each pocket contained the produce of about 150 imperial bushels (5,500 l) of green hops. It weighed a hundredweight and a quarter (140 pounds (64 kg)) and was marked with the growers details, this being required under The Hop (Prevention of Fraud) Act, 1866. An illustration of the process can be seen here.

The pockets were then sent to market, where the brewers would buy them and use the dried hops in the beer making process to add flavour and act as a preservative.

Oasts sometimes caught fire, the damage sometimes being confined to the kilns (Castle Farm, Hadlow), or sometimes leading to the complete destruction of the oast (Stilstead Farm, East Peckham in September 1983 and Parsonage Farm, Bekesbourne in August 1996).¹²³⁴

Early oasts

The earliest description of an oast dates from 1574. It was a small building of 18 feet (5.49 m) by 9 feet (2.74 m) in plan, with walls 9 feet (2.74 m) high. The central furnace was some 6 feet (1.83 m) long, 2 feet 6 inches (760 mm) high and 13 inches (330 mm) internal width. The upper floor was the drying floor, and only some 5 feet (1.52 m) above the ground floor, hops being laid directly on the slatted floor rather than being laid on hessian cloth as was the later practice. ²

Conversions to oasts

In many cases, early oasts were adapted from barns or cottages. A chapel at Frindsbury is also known to have been converted to an oast.⁵

This was done by building a kiln within the building dividing it into three, the upper floor being used the receive the "green" hops, dry them and press the dried hops. Examples of this type of conversion can be seen at Catt's place, Paddock Wood and Great Dixter, Northiam.²

Later conversions of barns and cottages would be by either building an intergal kiln within one end of the building, as seen at Biddenden, Kent or adding kilns externally to the existing building, as seen at Barnhill Farm, Hunton and also at Sutton Valence.²⁶

Purpose built oasts

An agreement for the building of an oast in Flimwell in 1667 gave the size of the building as 30 feet (9.14 m) by 15 feet (4.57 m)' and another to be built there was to be built in 1671 being 32 feet (9.75 m)' by 16 feet (4.88 m) or 17 feet (5.18 m)', having two kilns. The earliest surviving purpose built oast is at Golford, Cranbrook, built in 1750. This small timber framed oast is 21 feet (6.40 m) by 15 feet (4.57 m) in plan, and has a hipped tiled roof. It has one kiln, and a single cowl in the ridge of the roof.²⁶

Traditional oasts

In the early nineteenth century, the traditional oast as we now know it started to be built. A two or three storey stowage, with between one and eight circular kilns. Kiln sizes generally ranged from 12 feet (3.66 m) to 18 feet (5.49 m) diameter, with a conical roof. Towards the end of the nineteenth century square kilns were constructed. These generally ranged in size from 16 feet (4.88 m) to 20 feet (6.10 m) square. An oast at Hawkhurst was built with two octagonal kilns, 15 feet (4.57 m) across the flats.²

Modern oasts

In the twentieth century, oasts reverted back to the original form with internal kilns and cowls in the ridge of the roof (Bell 5, Beltring). These oasts were much larger and constructed of modern materials. Oasts were built as late as 1948 (Upper Fowle Hall, Paddock Wood) or 1950 (Hook Green, Lamberhurst).²

Very modern oasts bear little resemblance to traditional oasts. These vast buildings can process hops from several farms, as at Norton near Teynham, built in 1982.²

Construction

The South East

Oasts were built of various materials, including bricks, timber, ragstone, sandstone. Cladding could be timber weatherboards, corrugated iron or asbestos sheet.²

Stowage

Many oasts were timber framed buildings, although some were built entirely in brick, or ragstone if this was available locally. Some oasts were entirely brick except the front and floors, which were timber.²

Kilns

Internal kilns were built of timber or bricks. External kilns were built from bricks, ragstone, ragstone and bricks, or sandstone. A rare material usage was at Tilden Farm, Headcorn were the kiln was built from Bethersden Marble. During the Second World War, a few kilns were built with a basic timber framing and clad in corrugated iron (Crittenden Farm, Matfield).²

Kiln roofs

Kiln roofs, where the kiln was external, were generally built of a timber frame and covered in either peg tiles or slate. Some oasts had conical kiln roofs built of brick, these were covered it tar or pitch to keep them weatherproof. A few oasts had square kilns with brick roofs, again covered in tar or pitch. The top of the roof was open, and carried a cowl or louvred vent.²

The West Midlands

Stowage

Bricks were the usual material for building the stowage, wood only being used in floors. Stone was sometimes used too (Madley). Some oasts had a cider mill on the ground floor of the stowage (Little Cowarne Court, Little Cowarne). ⁷

Kilns

Kiln roofs

Kiln roofs could be of timber, clad in tiles or slate, or of bricks. Brick kiln roofs could be tarred (Little Cowarne Court, Bromyard) or left bare (The Farm, Brockhampton).The roofs would be topped with a cowl (Upper Lyde Farm, Pipe cum Lyde), or a ridge ventilator (Kidley, Acton Beauchamp).⁷

Locations

South East England

West Midlands

Europe

Australia

Tasmania is a major hop-growing area. During the nineteenth century some of the Kentish hop growers emigrated, and took hops with them. Initially, Tasmanian oasts were converted from existing buildings (New Norfolk, Ranelagh) but later purpose built oasts were built (Valley Field, Bushey Park). These oasts had louvred ventilators instead of a cowl. The New Norfolk oast was converted from a watermill and is now a museum. Another location that has oasts was Tyenna. A modern oast of 400 feet (120 m) by 200 feet (61 m), was built at Bushey Park in 1982.³⁸

Conversion

With the increasing mechanisation of the hop-picking process, many oasts fell into disuse. Some were demolished, others became derelict. Increasing demand for housing has led to many oasts being converted into houses. Local councils nowadays are generally much stricter on the aesthetics of the conversions than was the case before planning law came into being. Often kiln roofs have to be rebuilt, and cowls provided on converted oasts.²

The earliest example of an oast being converted to a house is Millar's Farm oast, Meopham, which was house-converted in 1903 by Sir Philip Waterlow.²

Other conversions of oasts for non-residential purposes include a theatre (Oast Theatre, Tonbridge, Oast house Theatre Rainham, a Youth Hostel (Capstone Farm, Rochester, another at Lady Margaret Manor, Doddington - now a residential centre for people with learning difficulties), a school (Sturry), a visitor centre (Bough Beech reservoir) offices (Tatlingbury Farm, Five Oak Green and a museum (Kent Museum of Rural Life, Sandling, Preston Street, Faversham, Wye College, Wye and the former Whitbread Hop Farm at Beltring.

Fake oasts

In recent years, a number of buildings have been erected to look as though they were oasts, although in fact that is not the case.³ Examples of this are:-

References

^ Kentish Fire p19
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o Oasts in Kent
^ ^a ^b ^c Kentish Oasts
^ ^a ^b Hops and Hop Picking
^ In Kentish Pilgrim Land p248
^ ^a ^b Oasthouses in Sussex and Kent
^ ^a ^b ^c A Pocketful of Hops
^ New Norfolk
^ Tatlingbury Farm oast
^ Doddington Youth Hostel
^ Flickr
^ Flickr

Contents

Hop drying

Early oasts

Conversions to oasts

Purpose built oasts

Traditional oasts

Modern oasts

Construction

The South East

Stowage

Kilns

Kiln roofs

The West Midlands

Stowage

Kilns

Kiln roofs

Locations

South East England

West Midlands

Europe

Australia

Conversion

Fake oasts

References

Sources

External links