Oast Houses

Oast Houses are a venacular form of building in Kent. Oast Houses were designed for drying hops as part of the brewing process, with the crop taken in to the buildings on carts and winched up into the roof void. Vents in the roof tiles would let the breeze dry the hops gently. The most familiar Oast Houses are often circular buildings with conical roofs but there are many older ones that were built square. They began to emerge in Kent, with a few examples in Essex and Herts, around the 16th century as the growing of hops and brewing of beer began to be industrialised.

Notable Oast Houses

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  Arnoldbrae Oast a traditional twin rounded Kentish Oast at Maidstone, Kent. Shortlisted for the 2017 RIBA House of the Year.

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  Little Halden Oast - featured prominently in property papers in 2016

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  Caring Wood in Kent - a new build home referencing the hop-drying towers of the local oasts by Macdonald Wright Architects and winner of the 2017 RIBA House of the Year Award

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  Bumpers Oast, a contemporary take on the traditional Kent Oast House by architects Acme.

Oast Houses In Art & The Media

The most famous TV oast house is Buss Farm which featured in the Darling Buds of May http://www.britishpathe.com/video/oast-houses-and-orchard/query/oast

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  Buss Farm used in the Darling Buds of May

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  ’Live In Kent’ Poster for Southern Electric Railway 1932

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  ’Oast House, Ordington, Kent’ by George William Collins (1863-1949)

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  'Oast Houses' Painting by John Cooper of the East London Group 1934

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  ’Oast Houses, Menston, Yorkshire’ by John Cooper of the ELG

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  ‘A Kent Farm in Spring‘ 1965 by Ronald George Lampitt

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  ’A Kent Landscape’ by David Shepherd (1931–2017)

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  'Kent Winter Landscape', Rowland Hilder, 20C (via @HenryRothwell)

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  ‘OastHouses, Kent (after Rowland Hilder)’ by Alan Reed.

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  ‘Kent Village with Oast Houses’ a linocut print by Robert Tavener

Non-Residential Conversions

There are a small number of notable 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.

See Also In Chimni

ChimniWiki Agricultural Conversions

ChimniWiki Chimni Home Typology

Other Interesting Web Sites

http://www.geograph.org.uk/article/Oast-Houses

http://www.britainexpress.com/History/oast-houses.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oast_house

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/property-go-for-the-oast-with-the-most-1168846.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/9612529/How-about-an-oast-house.html

References

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