Hop growing and drying shared in the leap forward of agriculture in 18th Century Britain, especially in the second half of the century when the growing population in towns and cities increased demand for beer. The Farnham area on the Surrey-Hampshire borders saw string growth in the 18th Century and […]
Barn style oasts, without conical kilns, but often expanded into a T shape to accommodate two or more kilns at one end, or in a row at the side of the stowage, continued into the 18th Century. It is striking that Richard Bradley in Riches of the Hop Garden Explained, […]
A group of tall pyramidal kilns topped by white cowls, visible across the landscape is the classic image of a hop oast. Yet it is not at all clear when, where and how the idea of building a tall pyramidal square kiln, seperate from the stowage with its lower roof […]
If the diarist and antiquarian John Aubrey (author of Brief Lives) is to be believed hop growing and drying arrived in Farnham, Surrey by the end of the 16th Century. He wrote Perambulations of Surrey in 1673 and recorded that at Farnham there are hops in as great plenty as […]
New Book on Oast and Hop Kiln History.