Oast Houses

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❖ Converted oast houses

Over 85% of oast houses have now been converted to dwellings, usually houses, but sometimes flats.


…lots of which are also B&B's and holidays lets.


One of the first known conversions was at Millar's Farm near Meopham in 1903.


Other oast houses have been converted to…

Farm shops


Offices


Theatres


Community centres


Visitors centres


Gift shops


Schools


Health centres


Youth hostels


Student Accommodation


Cafés, tea rooms, pubs and restaurants


a Christian Retreat


Kebab shop


An increasingly small proportion of disused oast houses are left unconverted.

or in ruins

See a Geograph Map of unconverted oast houses and Shared description.

There are a number of publicly visitable oast house museums.

❖ Preservation

After the decline of the hop industry, many hundreds of oast houses were demolished. Particularly after the 2nd world war, numerous buildings were demolished to make way for new farm buildings, housing estates, or returned the land to farmland.

The occasional oast house is still being demolished, but most are now valuable assets.

Over 500 Oast Houses are Listed buildings. See more listed oasts


Yonsea Farm was saved from the path of the Channel Tunnel railway link near Hothfield, and completely moved to the Rare Breeds Centre.


The tiles and timbers of an oast house at the Bewl Water Reservoir site were taken to Montreal, Canada, where an oast house was reconstructed.

Burgess Hill Farm Oast was removed to make way for the A21 dualling.


Lack of maintenance is common on disused buildings, as demonstrated by this collapsed kiln roof near Brenchley.


Many traditional materials and features are changed during the conversion period, such as large domestic windows, chimney stacks, porches, white painted weatherboard (rather than black stain), tile hung walls, and painted walls.


It is important that oast houses are converted sensitively to maintain their character and avoid unattractive additions…


Other modifications;

Some unusual windows


Cowl replacements

❖ Archive

Unlike castles, windmills, pillboxes and other distinct buildings, there are no other public lists or photo-archives of oast houses.
With around 2500 separate oast houses photographed, Geograph has the largest public online photographic record of oast houses.

❖ Popular Oast Houses

Some of the most photographed oast houses on Geograph and the rest of the internet…



…and most featured on postcards and calendars

❖ Fake Oast Houses

Some 'fake' or 'mock' oasts have been allowed to be built. Some are easily spotted as they are out of proportion to a normal oast house, built at a much larger scale than the originals. Many of these have been built since the 1980's when oast houses were becoming more sort after and desirable residences. They are typically in areas were the local area has little or no architectural merit.



These toilets were opened in 2010 in the style of two oast house kilns, at about half size.

See more fake oast houses

❖ Village signs

Many village signs in hop growing areas adorn an oast house.



See more village signs

❖ As seen on TV

Darling Buds of May (1991-1993).
Buss Farm was the main filming location for the tv series, where it was known as 'Home Farm'. In one episode the oast is re-tiled.

❖ Trivia

The most common names are Manor Farm Oast and Park Farm Oast.

An oast house was only used for drying for one month each year. The rest of the year it would be used as a store for other farm produce, animal feed, farm implements or whatever else the farmer might need to store.

In 2004, as an alternate way to sell an oast house at Chilham, it was put up as a raffle prize. BBC link.


In 2007, the Daily Mail newspaper gave away an oast house, valued at £400,000, in a competition.

According to an article in The Illustrated London News in 1886, an oast house at Sharsted Court in Newnham is believed to have been used for drying tobacco. The tobacco was grown adjacent to the hops.

❖ Further reading

Books
"Kentish Oasts" by R. and I. Walton
"Oasthouses in Sussex and Kent" by Gwen Jones and John Bell
"Beltring Hop Farm" by Robin Walton
"The Oasthouses, Their Life & Times" by Alan Major

Webpages
Wikipedia
Images Of England
Geograph: Oast Houses (snippet)
Geograph: The Hop Farm
Geograph: Hopper Huts (snippet)
Geograph: Hops & Hop Fields (snippet)
Geograph: Maltings (tags)
Oast and Hop Kiln History

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