Tall conical and pyramidal buildings, topped by white cowls or louvred vents, are a distinctive sight on the farms and in the villages of Kent, East Sussex, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Surrey and Hampshire. In these buildings, hops were dried, pressed, and bagged for despatch to breweries. In Kent and Sussex, they are called 'oasts' or 'oast houses', and in other counties 'hop kilns'. Oasts and hop kilns are testimony to a specialised and important rural industry, and for hundreds of years, they were a defining feature of the countryside. By the late 19th century, there were as many as 8,000 hop kilns and oast houses in England. This book is the first comprehensive account of the history of oasts and hop kilns in England and includes a comparison with hop drying buildings in Continental Europe and the USA. The 400-year evolution of the kilns and their machinery is pieced together from surviving buildings, books, archives and local lore. In this richly illustrated volume, the charm of oasts and hop kilns on the countryside is captured in sketches, diagrams and photos by the author and others.

About the Author
Patrick Grattan MBE comes from Kent. He had a long career as a diplomat in Stockholm, Paris, Brussels and London, worked in the oil industry, and also ran charities related to employment and equal opportunities. Oasts and hop kilns is a subject he first studied in the 1960s. He has written much, but this is his first book.

Reviews
'Grattan brings a definitive study to this surprisingly wide ranging subject [...] the book provides everything that a conservation officer could require.'
Graham Tite, Context

'This book is superbly illustrated with a plethora of colour photographs, sketches of the author's research in 1960 and a number of drawings and cross-sections to illustrate both production processes and building... this book presents an excellent historical analysis of the traditional buildings associated with the hop industry, set within the background of the cultivation, processing and marketing of English hops.' Alan M. Wadsworth, Agricultural History Review

'Throughout, the book is very well illustrated with [Grattan's] own and other historic photographs, his delightful sketches, and colour images of many of the surviving kilns... this book is an essential source for anyone studying or interested in oast and hop kiln buildings and their development in the two main regions. Since relatively few unaltered oast and hop kilns survive it is also a record of the buildings of this rural industry.' Amber Patrick, Industrial Archaeology Review

Book Information
ISBN 9781789622515
Author Patrick Grattan
Format Hardback
Page Count 192
Imprint Historic England
Publisher Liverpool University Press