The latest publication from the publishing partnership between Historic England and Liverpool University Press is a volume on oasts and hop kilns researched and written by Patrick Grattan. These 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.

By the late 19th century, there were as many as 8,000 hop kilns and oast houses in England. In Kent and Sussex, they are known as ‘oasts’ or ‘oast houses’, and in other counties as ‘hop kilns’. These distinctive buildings were where the hops were dried, pressed, and bagged for despatch to breweries.

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.

For further details follow this link: https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/id/55654/