Bell 5, Beltring, built 1935 In the 20th century, oasts reverted 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). Very modern oasts bear little resemblance to traditional oasts.
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Oasts were built of various materials, including bricks, timber, ragstone, sandstone. Cladding could be timber weatherboards, corrugated iron or asbestos sheet. ;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.
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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 was built at Bushy Park in 1982.
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Oasts were generally built of bricks, or local stone. ;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).
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In Belgium, the main hop growing area is around Poperinghe and Ypres. The Czech Republic also has oasts.
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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.
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Oasts are generally associated with Kent, and the oasthouse is a symbol associated with the county. They are also found in Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire.
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Oast houses in New Norfolk, Tasmania Oast houses are often called hop kilns in Australia. Tasmania is a major hop-growing area, as were parts of Victoria. During the 19th 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, Bushy Park).
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Playden Oasts Hotel, Playden Playden is a village and civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England. The village is located one mile (1.6 km) north-west of Rye. Within the parish there is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Houghton Green Cliff. This is an exposed cliff face displaying sandstones of geological interest.
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The cowl functions to keep the weather out and encourage air flow. The direction of the cowl moves with the wind and the creaking sound it makes is a distinctive feature of the Oast House. Many Oast Houses dot the country side throughout Playden. Many have been converted into private residences, however the Playden Oasts Hotel offers accommodation and meals to the public.
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A secondary function is to prevent birds and squirrels from nesting in the chimney. They often also act as a rain guard to keep rain from going down the chimney. A metal wire mesh is sometimes added as a spark arrestor. Wooden cowls were used on oasts to prevent the ingress of rain into kilns, and create a flow of air through the kiln.
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Many have been converted into private residences, however a few, like the Playden Oasts Inn, remain open to the public. Since the second world war, the town has become a centre for ceramics. Apart from its tourist base, Rye continues to operate as a port. Considerable investment has been made in facilities for both the fishing fleet berthed at Rye and the commercial wharves at Rye Harbour.
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Most archaeologists believe that Narrow Street represents the line of the medieval river wall. The eastern end of Narrow Street was previously known as Fore Street. A combination of tides and currents made this point on the Thames a natural landfall for ships, the first wharf being completed in 1348. Lime kilns or oasts ("lymehostes") used in the production of mortar and pottery were built here in the fourteenth century.
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A traditional oast at Frittenden, Kent An oast, oast house or hop kiln is a building designed for kilning (drying) hops as part of the brewing process. They can be found in most hop-growing (and former hop-growing) areas and are often good examples of vernacular architecture. Many redundant oasts have been converted into houses. The names oast and oast house are used interchangeably in Kent and Sussex.
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Often kiln roofs have to be rebuilt, and cowls provided on converted oasts. 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. 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. The National Trust owns an oast at Outridge, near Brasted Chart which has very rare octagonal cowls, one at (Castle Farm, Sissinghurst), converted to tea rooms and another at Batemans, Burwash which has been converted to a shop, with the cowl being replaced by a dovecot.
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Flue-cured tobacco was originally strung onto tobacco sticks, which were hung from tier- poles in curing barns (Aus: kilns), also traditionally called oasts. These barns have flues which run from externally fed fire boxes, heat-curing the tobacco without exposing it to smoke, slowly raising the temperature over the course of the curing. In the 1960s conversion to gas fueled systems such as the Gastobac Burner System® was common. The process will generally take about a week.
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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 word oast itself also means "kiln".Oxford English Dictionary The earliest surviving oast house is at Golford, Cranbrook near Tunbridge Wells. It dates from sometime in the 17th century and closely mirrors the first documentary evidence on oasts soon after their introduction of hops into England in the mid 16th century.
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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 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.
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Kilndown first appears on Hasted's map in 1778 but was referenced as "Killdown"; the "Kiln" in the current name may have come from the kiln oasts harvested in the area, or that the area produced bricks. Two estates existed near the village: the first was the Combwell Estate that was formed during the reign of King Henry II, however it became a priory in 1220. However the priory was destroyed during the Reformation of the Church in the 16th century. Nothing of the building remains.
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Oast House at Great Dixter, East Sussex 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,as was one at Horton, near Canterbury. This was done by building a kiln within the building, dividing it into three, the upper floor being used to 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.
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The inside of a kiln, looking up to the cowlClose Brewery, Hadlow, KentThis section deals with the traditional cowls found on oasts, with particular reference to the South East. From the outside, a cowl appears to just sit on the roof of the kiln. High in the roof of the kiln is a beam spanning the centre, called the sprattle beam, this carries a bearing which the pintle on the bottom of the centre post sits in. At the top of the kiln, the centre post passes through a two or three armed top stay iron.
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Each pocket contained the produce of about of green hops. It weighed a hundredweight and a quarter () and was marked with the grower's details, this being required under The Hop (Prevention of Fraud) Act, 1866. 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).
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However, Chainhurst Manor, which sits on top of the ridge and is located directly opposite the northern end of Dairy Lane, is at least 400 years old and documentary evidence shows that Chainhurst has appeared on maps at least since the 18th century. Local Industry Historically, local industry was primarily agricultural with many of the former residents working for one or other of the major farms located in the immediate area. Traditional farming activities included fruit and arable farming, with extensive hop gardens, as evidenced by the oasts of The Roundels and Reed Court Farm, on Hunton Road and those at Whitehurst and adjacent to Platt House, which are both found on Dairy Lane. There is also a compound of "Hoppers Huts", located south of the bridge over the Beult, which provided accommodation for seasonal workers who came to the area to help with the annual harvest.
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