Hereward Leathart Dissertation by PDF Uploads

Lost to time. Found in memory.

Hereward Leathart

Lost to time. Found in memory. How the oast house and the hop trade affected the lives of people and the vernacular in Kent.

Hereward Leathart 170798987 ARC 3060 Architecture in Place Josep-Maria Garcia-Fuentes and Andrew Ballantyne Covid Research Adaptation Account on page 4 Word count: 8408 words | Footnotes: 811 words | Preface: 516

Contents Acknowledgements

p.1

Preface

p.2

Abstract

p.3

Covid Research Adaptation Account

p.4

Introduction Map of England

p.5

Introduction

p.6

Chapter 1 – The Hop Trade Beginnings The First Use of Hops and Introduction of them into the UK, looking in particular at the South-East

p.8

The Economic Viability of the Hop Trade

p.12

The Use of Oasts and their Characteristics within the Hop Trade

p.15

Chapter 2 – The Life within the Hop Trade The Cultural Effect of the Hop Trade The Society the Hop Trade Created

p.22 p.25

Chapter 3 – The Modern Day Hop Trade Mechanisation Affecting Unemployment and the Decline of the Hop Trade Redevelopment of the Oasts

p.29 p.32

Conclusion

p.35

List of Figures

p.38

Bibliography

p.41

Appendix

p.43

Acknowledgements I would like to thank Tom and Sophie, my parents, for telling me about oast houses in the first place and supporting me at all stages of the work. I am also grateful to the Tipples family for sharing their thoughts and experiences of growing hops, and Antony and Sylvie Harris for showing me their beautiful, converted oast house. Most importantly, I would like to thank Josep-Maria Garcia-Fuentes and Andrew Ballantyne for their wisdom and encouragement with this work and for guiding me through this dissertation.

Preface The construction of the pyramids of Giza or Stonehenge, the city of Nineveh, the Ottoman Empire; some things are forgotten about in history despite those events affecting thousands of lives and several generations. The life surrounding the hop trade, I believe, is one of those events, but the remains of this once prominent trade is evident today. Hop kilns, or oasts, were first invented as a way to dry hops to be used in the production of beer, and these unique buildings can be seen internationally, mainly in England, Germany, Australia, the Czech Republic and the United States of America. However, not all the designs of oasts evolved into the same forms. This dissertation looks at the evolution of the oast within Kent – the most south-easterly county of England – as well as the life of the hop trade surrounding these buildings and how the Kent oast became the most recognised design for hop kilns. Although there are numerous texts, mainly on the hop trade and speaking directly about the design of oasts, there is one piece of historical writing specifically about my topic; “English Oast Houses and Hop Kilns” written in 1953 by a Lethaby scholar, Peter E. Locke for Country Life magazine. He goes into depth about the introduction and function of the oast across the whole UK. The author concludes the article by talking about the unsightliness of them as they are made of corrugated iron and asbestos.1 As this only touches on many of the physical aspects of an oast, I believe it would be better to go into more depth about the life surrounding the oast, as that is a major aspect when looking at the heritage and memory of the trade, making this dissertation entirely unique. As this is also written 70 years later, I believe at present, there is more known about the trade and more to discuss on the idea of preservation of the oast, now that its working life is all but a faint memory. Due to the lack of academic pieces on this major part of Kent history, I believe that there should be a light cast on these buildings and want to discuss ideas of preservation of these buildings or articles/accounts. The thought for preservation is fairly recent in human history, in England there were serious questions asked around the time of the industrial revolution “where factory and tenement miseries heightened nostalgia for olden rural ways.”2 The destruction of historic sites and most importantly construction of a very different world, caused people to be more aware of material loss, and therefore they took “solace in recalling, if not revisiting, childhood and ancestral landscapes.”3 Nowadays “half the British population seem to be seeking converted barns, watermills, oast houses”,4 as they enact the thought that they are part of the cultural identity of Kent. Due to this a large number have been converted and there are some still being converted today. But does their conversion keep the memory of the hop trade alive? Or is the conversion destroying a part of history?

Locke, Peter E. 1953. “The Design of Oast-houses.” Country Life, September 17: 911. p. 860 Lowenthal, David. 2015. The Past is a Foreign Country. Vol. 2. New York: Cambridge University Press. Accessed January 5, 2021. https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https:// doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139024884., p. 417 3 ibid., p. 417 4 ibid., p 420 2

Abstract The dissertation will inform the reader about the earliest introduction of hops into the UK looking at why Kent in particular was able to so easily introduce this new crop, and therefore create a market that spread nationally and internationally. Having established this, there became a need for the proper equipment associated with agricultural enterprises, in this instance the oast or hop kiln. But what made the Kent oast so well recognised? I will answer this question briefly looking at the specific designs and characteristics throughout the ages, with the use of diagrams. Having identified the more materialistic aspect of the trade, I will then focus on the people and culture within the trade to emphasise the importance that the trade had at its peak. This will continue by looking at the decline and mechanisation of the trade, destroying a way of life for thousands of pickers and ending the age of the traditional oast. I will conclude by looking at the redevelopment of these oasts into habitable oast houses, and discuss ideas on preservation, identity and memory.

Covid Research Adaptation Account Although Covid was about at the time of writing and gathering information for my dissertation, it had marginal affect on my work. Luckily a large number of places were open despite some restrictions such as Great Dixter, however the Museum of Kent Life wasn’t open and is still closed, which could have provided some extra insight into the agricultural aspects behind the hop trade. My neighbours – The Tipples and Harris’ were generous enough for me to go and interview them in person, and I conducted an online meeting with a local architect to talk about the conversion of oasts, however, unfortunately due to the direction that my dissertation headed in, this interview has not been included.

Map of england

2 4

1. Kent

4. Sussex (East and West)

2. Surrey

5. Worcestershire

3. Hampshire

6. Herefordshire

Figure 1: Map of England showing the counties where hops were most commonly grown.

Introduction “Kent has married into England. People who know Normandy will recognize the relationship. Normandy has the same sort of scenery as Kent; rolling hills with intimate and lavishly fertile valleys…Kent would have her vineyards too, or at least would drink the wine of France as a natural right…However, she has her substitute for the vineyards. Her hop-gardens are a sacred cult.” 5 Richard Church, an English writer born in 1893, spoke of Kent with great fondness and accurate representation. Having lived in Kent and South London, Church understood and had seen the hop trade decline throughout his life. Many will know why hops are used nowadays, however few will know what and where they came from and how they were incorporated into the beer brewing process. Even fewer people know the building that was used to dry hops. As a foreigner to South-East England, and in particular Kent, you might notice strange conical shaped buildings and wonder what they are. Having lived in the area my entire life without realising it they became a familiar sight that I hadn’t considered to be particular to Kent. These buildings were in fact the reminiscent signs of the hop trade in Kent. Oasts or hop kilns, later converted into oast houses, are dotted around every corner of Kent and were used to dry hops which then allowed them to be transported locally and internationally. For the ease of this discussion I will refer to the agricultural oast house as simply an ‘oast’, despite some records referring to the said building, as an ‘oast house’. The term ‘oast house’ will refer to its modern conversion into a building of human habitation. Hops have been around for centuries, but despite this it took until around the 16th century for them to be used regularly in beer. For this reason, I will start the dissertation from there to help explain the backstory of the production and use of oasts. The discussion will end at present day, talking about the decline of the trade and dereliction of oasts, mentioning the influence that oasts have had on the modern vernacular. To understand the importance of the oast within the setting of Kent, I will first discuss how hops were introduced to this country which then led to mass production of this crop, which in turn led to the design and creation of the oast. This will look at a variety of accounts that explain what hops were first used for and the stigma around them being “a wicked weed that would spoil the taste of the drink and endanger the people.”6 From here the discussion will give a more factual analysis of the design of the oast to inform us, via visual aids, how the oast functioned. This discussion will continue looking in more depth at the impact the hop trade, and therefore oasts, had to both the economy, culture and community of Kent. This will help us understand the scale of different jobs and different economies that were required to maintain the hop trade. Reading personal accounts, from the hoppers and residents of 5 6

Church, R., 1948. Kent. 9th ed. London: Robert Hale & Company., p. 9 Grieve, M. M., 1973. ‘A Modern Herbal - The medicinal, culinary, cosmetic, and economic properties, cultivation and folklore of herbs, grasses, fungi, shrubs and trees with all their modern scientific uses.’ 2nd ed. West Molesey: Merchant Book Company Ltd., p. 411

Kent, will lend knowledge and insight to the social impact the trade had. These accounts and the stories encouraged the cultural arts to explore the life within the hop trade, so by looking at art and writing we can see the impact the trade had on bringing the culture of Kent to a wider audience. To conclude the dissertation, I will look at why there was a decline in the trade within these regions which led to the obsolescence of traditional oasts and then the renovation of these buildings into oast houses among other various uses. This will briefly touch on historical articles about the mechanisation of agriculture, before continuing to look at some modern conversions. This is all in an attempt to determine whether the oast should be more rigorously preserved as a symbol of the hop trade;or whether it is alright to adapt its use to then accommodate people within, as that in itself offers some form of preservation as the inhabitants understand a bit more about the importance of the trade in Kent life. 2.

Figure 2: A hop garden in September. 3.

Figure 3: A hop bine straight after being pulled by the author in September.

Chapter 1 - The Hop Trade Beginnings In this chapter I will be discussing the initial stages of the hop trade, looking at how the cultivation and use of hops was introduced into 16th century Europe and England, firstly looking at the original use and then the incorporation of them into beer. This will focus on the SouthEast in particular and why it became one of many global hubs for hops, identifying its physical characteristics and looking at the economical viability within this region. This helps to set up the more detailed discussion of life within the trade once it had become more engrained into Kentish life. The First Use of Hops and the Introduction of them into the UK “Turkeys, Carp, Hops, Pickerel and Beer, Came to England all in one Year”7 This old rhyme, dating from 1424, has several variations, another being, ‘Hops, Reformation, Bays and Beer’, but all include hops.8 Although this rhyme is not factually correct, the importance of it remains. Humulus lupulus, the Latin name for the hop, is actually a native plant to England among other northern European countries, growing wild in many hedgerows. Before being used in beer, hops were used medicinally, “they were recommended as an appetite stimulant, a mild pain-killer and a sedative”. These properties led to hop pillows being created and are believed to have cured George III’s insomnia, leading to hop pillows being used nationally as a sedative.9 They were even used in proper medicine in the 16th and 17th century with the idea that they could “cleanse the blood, killeth ringworms, cureth yellow jaundice and all manner of scabs”.10 The first record of it being used in beer was from as early as the ninth century in Germany, but it was not until the thirteenth century that hops started threatening the use of gruit, a herb mix used for the flavouring and bitterness of ale. This was because there was a tax on gruit, unlike hops, which had been implemented by the Catholic Church.11 Despite their previous medicinal properties, there was a great prejudice against hops. In the reign of Henry VI (1422 – 1461) there were attacks on foreign brewers in London which led to an Act of Parliament stating that they could continue their trade,12 however hops were still banned from being planted. Eventually the government and King realised the potential market that the hop offered and fuelled by the xenophobic attitude that the British public had towards foreign trade, the laws were changed again to allow the British public to grow hops to compete with the international market. Due to these changes in the law, the first 7

Doel, F. a. G., 2014. The Hop Bin; An Anthropology of Hop Picking in Kent and East Sussex. 1st ed. Stroud: The History Press. p.12 8 ibid. p. 12 9 Mabey, R., 1996. Flora Britannica: the definitive guide to wild flowers, plants and trees. 1st ed. London: Sinclair-Stevenson. p.64 10 Culpeper, N., 1653. The Complete Herbal. 1st ed. London: Paternoster Row. 11 Rissanen, M.  “The Reformation had some help from hops”. [online] Available at: <www. academia.edu.> [Accessed 21 September 2020.] 12 Jones, G. & Bell, J., 1992. Oasthouses in Sussex and Kent: Their History and Development. 1st ed. Chichester: Phillimore & Co. Ltd. p.1

English hop garden was believed to be planted in 1520 in Canterbury (although some accounts say that hops were planted in Maidstone long before they were in Canterbury), although it wasn’t until the end of the century that hops began to emerge in English beer, almost two centuries after the Netherlands.13 In 1524, Sir Edward Guildford was granted the licence to export hops having noticed the potential profit he could attain from this crop. However, the start of the affluent hop trade in the UK was put on hold for a while longer. 14 Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1536, detaching England from the papal authority and making the monarch the head of the Church of England (the Act being passed in 1534). This meant that the Sovereign had complete power over the taxes and laws in England. Before this Henry VIII had passed another Act in 1530 banning the use of hops once again due to his prejudice against foreigners. This Act lasted until 1552,15 after Edward VI came to the throne in 1547, again allowing hop growers privileges and brewers to use hops in beer for great benefit.16 Hops acted as a flavouring and preservative in beer which meant it lasted for around a month compared to ale which soured within two weeks.17 This alternative became so popular that hopped beer was the more popular English drink over the older form of beer – ale – by the end of the sixteenth century. By 1574, the production of hops in this country had started to grow enough for Reynolde Scot, an Oxford University graduate, to write a book called ‘A Perfecte Platforme of a Hoppe Garden’ detailing how to cultivate, harvest and dry hops. What was once a hated foreign crop became something that the British public wanted to grow and protect from foreign alternatives.18 Although Kent is considered ‘The Garden of England’ – a term that came about due to the increase of hop gardens as well as fruit orchards, it wasn’t just Kent that was producing hops. There were six counties in the whole of the UK that produced hops predominantly, “four in the south-east (Kent, Surrey, Hampshire, and Sussex) and two in the western Midlands (Worcestershire and Herefordshire)” [Figure 1]. However, Kent was the largest producer within the UK and at its peak produced sixty percent of hops,19 and a total of one third of all hop crops recorded in the UK.20 Due to my close connection with Kent, I will predominantly be talking about the hop trade and oasts in Kent rather than covering all six counties. To understand why hops were grown in the South East of England and in particular Kent, one must understand the type of soil and hence the type of farming that was carried out in the county. In the 16th and 17th century Kent farms were mainly mixed subsistence holdings , with 13

British Hop Association. 2020. Kent And The South East - British Hop Association. [online] Available at: <https://www.britishhops.org.uk/hops/history/kent-south-east/> [Accessed 18 October 2020]. 14 Grattan, P., 2015. The 16th CE. The earliest evidence - Oast and Hop Kiln History. [Online] Available at: http://oastandhopkilnhistory.com/ [Accessed 15 October 2020]. 15 Grieve, Mrs M. 1973. A Modern Herbal - The medicinal, culinary, cosmetic, and economic properties, cultivation and folklore of herbs, grasses, fungi, shrubs and trees with all their modern scientific uses. 2nd. West Molesey: Merchant Book Company Ltd., p. 412 16 ibid. p. 412 17 Scot, 1576. A Perfite Platforme of a Hoppe Garden. 2nd ed. London: Henrie Denham [online] 18 Grattan, op. cit., The 16Th CE. The Earliest Evidence [online] 19 Grieve, op. cit., p. 412 20 Doel, op. cit., p. 9

a focus on pastures and orchards. The geology of the area played an important role in this. Most of Kent’s soil is clay which is not good for arable farming. It is, however, good for grass as well as trees once they get well established. This heavy soil also suits hops as their roots are strong enough to penetrate the clay. The two main rivers in Kent, the Medway and the Stour, provided a faster way of transporting goods than by road, due to the poor quality of roads at the time and the nature of the soil miring carts. But it wasn’t just the geology that allowed for the great expansion of hop gardens in the South-East, the enclosed system of field farming was favoured for hops over the more traditional open fields elsewhere in the country, as the hedges and plantation around these fields provided natural wind protection. William Harrison even boasts of the quality of hops grown in Kent in his ‘Description of England’ (1577), when he wrote: “Of late years we have found and taken up a great trade in planting of hops, whereof our more hitherto and unprofitable grounds do yield such plenty and increase that there are few farmers or occupiers in the country and which have not gardens and hops growing of their own, and those far better than do come from Flanders unto us.”21 We have established that the physical characteristics of Kent meant that it was suitable for hops to grow, however there is much more to the story about why the oast came about, and how it became a dominant symbol and feature on this landscape.

Chalkin, C. W., 1965. Seventeenth-Century Kent: A Social and Economic History. London and Southampton: The Camelot Press Ltd. p. 118

Orch a rd s

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Cha lk

W e a ld C la y

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Figure 4: Geological map of Kent also highlighting the 1861 acreage of hops - near its peak

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Figure 5: Agricultural land use map of Kent also highlighting key towns

The Economy of the Hop Trade The development of the trade wouldn’t have come about if it wasn’t for the economy and profit that it offered. The expansion of the British Empire and setting up of colonies allowed for hops to be exported worldwide. Wars between empires affected this market as well. The various French wars – Wars of Coalition and Napoleonic Wars, in the late 18th century early 19th century only increased the amount of hops needed for beer, as soldiers were sent into battle slightly drunk to make them more courageous and boost morale.22 But why was the hop trade economically viable particularly in Kent, and what helped make it proliferate? At the time of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) the value of an orchard was higher than that of arable or pasture farming - “I know in Kent that some advance their ground from 5s [sic shillings] per acre to 5 pound by this meanes” – although this appears to be exaggerated, with other sources suggesting that arable or pasture was around 12s per acre and orchards being 20s (or one pound), the evidence indicates that Kent farmers were wealthier than other regions due to the larger amount of orchards in this region. As well as their orchards, Kent was London’s chief importer of cereals in the 1580s.23 This meant that farmers had previous wealth, which was needed in order to set up and maintain a hop garden, as well as a ready supply of labour for picking. London played a role in being a headquarters of hops, as Southwark’s Borough Market was the place where hops were judged for their quality and then traded and transported to brewers nationally or internationally [Figures 6 - 9]. Kent’s other economies and market’s also aided the hop trade to grow. The wool trade in Kent was the predominant trade before hops were introduced, but the cloth industry started declining in Kent in the 17th century due to higher labour and wool costs compared to Surrey, Hampshire, and Berkshire. However the increasing hop trade and the need for string, hop pockets (a rough hessian bag used to store hops) as well as oast hairs (large cloth sheets used to stop the hops falling into the kiln and causing a fire) meant that former weavers and spinners could find work in the agricultural sector.24 The timber in the area meant that a ready supply of chestnut hop poles could be supplied to dress the garden. Alongside this came charcoal, which had been produced in the Weald for hundreds of years and was used extensively in the iron industry, hence there was a ready supply of fuel for the drying kilns. In the 17th century the demand for hop poles meant “several thousand poles were needed every three or four years in small hop garden”25 and “up to 100 sacks of charcoal could be needed to dry 1 ton of hops.”26 This shows exactly why the hop trade eventually flourished and provided great commerce for the South-East, not just to farmers but to suppliers of the industry. But due to these extra costs, the expansion of hop farming in the 17th century was slow.27 Did, therefore, the introduction of oasts to dry hops make this process more efficient – allowing for Kent grown hops to enter the global market? 22

Mcfarland, B. and Sandham, T., 2017. A Brief History Of Battlefield Boozing | Spectator Life. [online] Spectator Life. Available at: <https://life.spectator.co.uk/articles/a-brief-history-ofbattlefield-boozing/> [Accessed 29 December 2020]. 23 Chalkin, C. W., op. cit., p.75 24 Chalkin, C. W., op. cit., p. 123 25 Chalkin, C. W., op. cit., p. 105 26 Grattan, op. cit., The 16Th CE. The Earliest Evidence [online] 27 Chalkin, C. W., op. cit. p.93

Figures 6 and 7: The Hop Exchange in Southwark, London. Engraving of the original (left). Photo of the current Hop Exchange, the top two floors were burnt in a fire so have been altered from its full splendour (right)

Figures 8 and 9: View of Borough High Street, Southwark, London, 1729, showing the open market containing hop pockets, in the foreground, the Town Hall, and St George the Martyr (left). Borough High Street, 1837 (right).

There were also some defining moments in history that increased the hop trade as a whole. Although there was no duty on hops during the reign of King William III, there was a duty on beer/ale and malt, a grain used in beer, but more so in ale.28 In the following years, due to wars with the French Empire, this duty kept increasing. During the reign of Queen Anne in 1710, the first duty on hops was imposed - “1 pence per pound on English hops and 3 pence per pound on foreign hops” – with the aim to reduce the amount of foreign hops being used by English breweries and encourage the production and exportation of English hops. Another Act, passed in 1774, stated that farmers had to stencil their name, year and location of the hops onto the hop pockets to reduce the risk of fraud.29 An adjusted duty on malt when the duty on hops came about meant the duty on malt surpassed that of hops. Due to this, ale became less popular and new drinks started to emerge, such as porter which was a third ale, a third beer and a third twopenny – a stronger beer. 30 There was another reason beer and porter became more popular and that was because it was known that malt liquor had been under scrutiny to serious complaints due to chemical preparations and drugs infused into the liquor which “weakened the frame, but tended more to contaminate the morals of society”.31 The use of more beer and less malt liquor was then favoured at the time as other alcoholic drinks weren’t available to the lower classes. I must add, that at this time in history, water was not purified and tended to be less clean, so ales, beers and ciders – with wine being a luxury drink – were drunk regularly for health benefits and more calories. This of course meant that more beer was drunk historically than it is nowadays. In the final years of the 19th century Sir Charles Whitehead, Kent farmer and regular contributor to the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, reported that “far more money has been made in hops than any other branch of agriculture in the last 50 years”, which has led to improvements in cultivation, drying, bagging and cultivation. This evidence explains why the acreage of hops doubled from 35,000 in 1800 to a peak of 72,200 in 1875 in the UK.32 Although these figures are impressive, it couldn’t have been achieved without the advancements in drying in particular. The oast was not only the key part to the production process of hops, but also to the culture and symbolism of the trade.

David Hughson, L., 1806. London being an accurate History and Description of the British Metropolis and its Neighbourhood, to thirty miles extent, from an actual Perambulation. 3rd ed. London: W. Stratford. p.293 29 Grattan, op. cit., The 17th Century [online] 30 David Hughson, op. cit., p. 293 31 ibid. p. 331 32 Grattan, op. cit., The 19th Century - Introduction [online]

The Use of Oasts within the Hop Trade When hops are picked they have to be dried within several hours of picking to ensure the hops don’t spoil. Green hops have about 75% to 85% water content, which when dried at around 150°F or around 65°C, reduces to 6% to 10%,33. They are then packed and dispatched to be used in brewing.34 The drying process is the pinnacle of all the hard work that is put into producing hops, which is why the dryers were called “the sable priests of Vulcan”. This enacts the thought that pickers respected these “priests” to a religious level when they worked in their ‘temples’, which were the oasts.35 Although the oast eventually became a cultural symbol across the Kent and the South-East, it took a few hundred years for the familiar reverted cone roofs with their cowls to become “the feature by which Kent is singled out from the rest of England.”36 Before this time, people either dried them out in the sun or in the kitchen at home. Some farmers already had a barley or malt kiln so would use this, but Scot wrote that these methods were wasteful and “without an oste hoppes will never be well dried”.37 For the next few hundred years Scot’s advice was followed by most farmers. To start with most oasts were converted from pre-existing barns or buildings with a kiln and drying floor above it in the centre of the building [Figure 10]. This was actually the practice in Flanders before coming to the UK, which explains why the particular style of oasts that are seen in Kent is unique worldwide as it evolved in this country. It didn’t take long however for adjustments to Scot’s model of an “oste”/oast to be made. John Woolridge wrote the book ‘The Mystery of Husbandry Discovered’ and in it he described what type of kiln to use as well as other features such as a “reverberator” to reflect the heat back onto the hops meaning they didn’t have to be turned as much when drying. Along with this he identified the need for clean smokeless fuels to be burnt or methods of releasing the smoke externally. However due to the added cost of this, iron stoves weren’t used much in the 17th century.38 Due to the rapid redevelopment and production of oasts in the 19th century, there is little knowledge on the oasts in the previous century, however it is known that most farm buildings built in the 18th century were made of wood.39 This factor alone explains why there are fewer surviving examples of them, as oasts often burnt down due to the nature of the drying process. The oast evolved as a vernacular piece of architecture, however no two oasts are exactly the same. The first noticeable difference is that some are round and some are square. The round kiln was developed across the High Weald by John Read from Horsmonden (1760-1847), who invented the stomach pump and gave his name to the brass enema syringe. Through managing garden hothouses 33

Anne Tipples, Frank Tipples, interview by Hereward Leathart. 2020. Hop Farming - A Live Account from Neighbouring Farmers (8 September). 34 Major, A., 2006. The Oasthouses Their Life and Times. 1st ed. Seaford: S.B. Publications. p. 22 35 Smart, C., 1752. ‘The Hop-Garden. A Georgic. In Two Books – Book Two.’ 1st ed. London: printed for the author, by W. Strahan; and sold by J. Newbery, at the Bible and Sun, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard. 36 Church, op. cit., p. 258 37 Scot, op. cit., p. 51 38 Grattan, op. cit., The 16Th CE. The Earliest Evidence [online] 39 Jones, op. cit., p. 0

for his employer he observed that the round kiln dries hops more quickly, whilst only using half the amount of fuel. This became the most recogised form for a Kent oast. With the introduction of fans, coke/oil fired kilns and pipes it allowed an even spread of heat which helped avoid any cold corners leading to the uneven drying of hops as well as allowing a thicker layer of hops to be dried [Figure 15]. These pipes allowed for the smoke to then leave the kiln without affecting the hops, something that Woolridge noticed from the start. Advancing Woolridge’s other idea of having a “reverberator” to reflect heat back was having the reverted cone chimneys. The slope helped reflect the heat back, whilst the height created a draught pulling air up out of the kiln. The second noticeable feature of oasts is that there is a great variety of materials used. In 1784 there was a tax put on bricks,40 this wasn’t lifted until 1850.41 As bricks were the best material for the job due to being non-combustible, farmers looked at using other materials. Kentish ragstone was used in Kent due to its hard wearing properties – similar to brick.42 The final feature is less noticeable as it is the exact dimensions of oasts. With the improvement in designs and construction, oasts became larger allowing more hops to be dried at a quicker rate. The evolution of different fuels meant kilns varied in size to accommodate either charcoal/ coal, coke, oil or gas powered kilns. Some barns were three stories to allow for a loading floor, cooling floor, and storage at the bottom. The most consistent part of an oast is its cowl, although even this varied between different regions and counties. The cowl is the pinnacle of the oast, with varying designs on the vane to either represent the county or to differentiate farms, it acted as a landmark for pickers in the landscape [Figure 17]. Invented in the late 18th century cowls were used to stop rain getting into the open chimney at the top of the kiln’s structure. Their other use was to draw air out of the kiln like a vacuum. The pointing vane caught the wind turning the small vent away from the wind, extracting the warmer, denser, water-heavy air out of the kiln into the cooler outside air, due to convection. This constant flow of air allowed for the hops to be dried quicker and more effectively as there was a constant draught pulling all the moisture out of the kiln. From this chapter we have learnt that although initially shunned for their use in beer, hops very quickly became a mass commodity in Kent, which led to significant research in the trade and greater wealth supplying local, national and international markets. Although there was significant innovation of oasts, it still required a large workforce for the picking and processing of the hops. This workforce over the centuries created a community and way of life that is remembered by thousands.

Major, op. cit., p. 48 Walton, R. & Walton, I., 1998. ‘Kentish Oasts - 16th-20th Century, their history construction and equipment.’ 1st ed. Canterbury: Christine Swift. p. 58 42 Church, op. cit., p. 7 41

10.

11.

Figure 10: Diagram showing Scot’s model of the oast Figure 11: Little Golford’s Oast diagram - the earliest surviving oast which dates from the 1740’s. 12.

Figure 12: Drawing of an old barn that was used to dry hops 13.

14.

Figure 13: Axonometric showing the internal layout of barns like the drawing above Figure 14: Massing floorplans showing the potential layout for kilns within an oast

15.

16.

Figure 15: Early 17th/18th century oast house Figure 16: Close up drawing of a hop press

18.

17.

19.

Wind vane

Upper roofing plate Round beam on which the vane turns

20.

21.

22.

Figures 17 - 22: Drawings showing the different styles of cowls. The highlighted cowl is what makes Kent oasts unique. Figure 18 shows the Sussex style cowl. Figure 19 shows the Herefordshire/Worcestershire cowls. Figures 20 - 22 Other variants of Cowls

23.

Figure 23: Floor plans and sections of some 18th century oasts variants

24.

Figure 24: Section of an oast in the late 18th century with a reverberator plate in the kiln to distribute heat evenly

25.

Figure 25: Section of an oast in the 19th century with pipes to distribute heat evenly and remove the smoke

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

Figure 26: A common German hop kiln. Figure 27: Two hop kilns in Austria with varying cowls on their roofs. Figure 28: Four hop kilns in the Czech Republic.. Figure 29: An American style hop kiln. This design was seen in other parts of the world as well. Figure 30: Three hop kilns in America.

Chapter 2 – The Life within the Hop Trade “What the banks of the Riviera are to the children of the aristocracy, the banks of the Medway and the Stour are to the children of the poor; and what the vineyards of France and Italy are to the weary votary of fashionable life, the hop-gardens are to the worn-out docker and labourer of the east of London.”43 This sentence written by John Marsh describes the significance of the hop trade to the people who worked in it and the people who were affected by it. Although there are many accounts and guides written about the cultivation of hops, to try and educate farmers on cultivating this crop, the introduction of the trade in to the culture of the day came about closer to the peak in the 1800s, drawing artists, writers and craftsmen to create pieces of work about this illustrious trade. The social aspect of the trade, most notably the workforce, was observed most at the peak of hop cultivation and carried on, declining as the industry was mechanised and the demand for Kent hops diminished. The Cultural Effect of the Hop Trade Much of the hop trade culture was first explained in the form of writings, some were agricultural books and some poetry, which both informed the reader and gave a more fanciful view on growing hops. One example of this is Thomas Tusser who wrote his farming manual in verse, titled ‘Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie (1557)’.44 Christopher Smart wrote two books/poems that were similar to this, describing the whole season in a more expressive and emblematic manner.45 Later on in 1697 Celia Fiennes writes about “the great Hopyards on both sides of the road” in Canterbury,46 and when in Tonbridge notices that there are a large amount of French people “some of them were Employ’d in the Hopping”, showing that the Kent hop market at the time was significant enough in pay and commerce for Frenchmen to travel across the channel for seasonal work.47 The Victorian period saw a larger amount of journalism and articles written about hopping, showing that this prosperous industry was being brought to the attention of all. This was when poems and in particular songs started to thrive. Some songs were from concert halls like; “‘Comrades’; ‘Hi Tiddley Hi Ti’; or the strains of ‘Annie Rooney’”48 and others were from the evenings spent around the campfire. When the hop pickers walked back in the dark to their huts they sung songs as they were scared of complete darkness due to there being more light in the city. A large number of the later songs were based on true stories that had happened surrounding hopping. 43

Marsh, John. 1892. Hops and Hopping. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co. Ltd., p. 42 44 Doel, op. cit., p. 25 45 Available Online: https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o4103-w0170. shtml#o4103-w0170-2 46 Fiennes, Celia. 1982. The Illustrated Journeys of Celia Fiennes. London: Macdonald and Co, p. 119 47 ibid., p. 120 48 Marsh. op. cit., p. 65

One speaks of the Hartlake Bridge disaster in October 1853, where 30 pickers drowned due to a bridge collapsing when there was flooding. One written in the Georgian times is called ‘The Jovial Man of Kent (When Autumn Skies are Blue)’, originating from the old English song ‘The Seven Trades’, which is a happier account of the times hopping. This song became quite significant in Kent history, and a few lines appeared in the catalogue at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1883 alongside a painting by Cecil Gordon Lawson, originally titled ‘The Hop Gardens of England’ and later changed to ‘Kent’ for this exhibit [Figure 31]. 49 The lines being: “Let Frenchmen boast their straggling vine, Which gives them drafts of meagre wine; It cannot match this plant of mine When autumn skies are blue’ Thus said the jovial man of Kent As through his golden hops he went.”50 While literature provided a way of informing and educating people on the practical side of the hop trade, art arguably played an important role in encouraging people to really invest into working in the hop gardens. One of the large art movements of its time, Romanticism started in 1750 and ended in 1890, at its height from about 1780 to 1830. This movement influenced art, literature and architecture at the time, creating pieces of work that tried to “emphasise the emotion[al] and imaginative aspects of art” through the use of dark shadows and rich colours.51 Painting around the time this movement started, was George Smith of Chichester (17131776). Smith painted many remote landscape scenes in a fashion that was not dissimilar from Romanticism, although perhaps with a more pragmatic colour palette, and one such scene was of ‘The Hop Pickers’ [Figure 32]. The movement was partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution at the time and scientific rationalization of nature and therefore many paintings depict picturesque landscape scenes enhancing characteristics that otherwise might appear mundane. Could this have cultivated people’s passions to then go and work in hop gardens and enjoy the country air? As conditions were so poor in the Victorian times there was a tendency to take a romantic and sentimental view to the little things in life, the countryside being one of them.52 Notwithstanding this, Romanticism was also influenced by spiritual beliefs and many paintings depicted religious scenes. You have probably already noticed several references stating the “sacred nature of this culture of the hop…that has become almost a religious ritual”,53 and at the time you can understand why there was a rich culture that brings about ideas of religion. The oast acted as a central hub and has become a cultural image for the people in 49

Smith, Alison. 2011. The Hop-Gardens of England. April. Accessed December 29, 2020. https:// www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lawson-the-hop-gardens-of-england-t13443 50 Available Online: https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/songs/thejovialmanofkent.html 51 Mayfair Gallery. 2018. 19th Century European Painting: Key Styles & Movements. 16 July. Accessed November 22, 2020. https://www.mayfairgallery.com/blog/19th-century-europeanpainting-styles-movements#:~:text=In%201800%2C%20at%20the%20turn,sculpture%20 and%20the%20decorative%20arts 52 Grattan, op. cit., The 19th Century - Hop Picking [online] 53 Church, op. cit., p. 259

31.

Figure 31: ‘The Hop Gardens of England’ by Cecil Gordon Lawson 32.

Figure 32: ‘The Hop Pickers’ by George Smith of Chicester

Kent, much like churches became the centre of people’s faith and their direct connection to God. The driers that occupy themselves in the oasts devote their entire time, day and night, during the season, to drying the hops, much like monks would devote their lives to reading and writing the Holy Scriptures. The pickers coming from their “urban slums”54 are very similar to the deprived people that looked towards religion as a means of escape from their impoverished reality. The Society the Hop Trade Created Before being mechanised, the hop trade required a large workforce – roughly 200 people per acre. As Kent neighboured London, it was able to utilise the increasing population in the City caused by the industrial revolution and with the use of a good railway network it transported 350-450,000 people each year in the 1800s to the varying counties around London, most entering Kent and East Sussex. This number is significant when you consider the population of England at the time was eight million.55 So what was life like for the people that worked on these hop farms, and who exactly were these people? For Kent, the people coming down to pick hops on their farms were mostly Eastenders looking for a working holiday in August for six weeks, as holidays in those times were almost non existent due to the poverty in the area. A day trip to the seaside was most people’s annual excursion in late 19th, early 20th century.56 ‘Hopping down in Kent’ not only gave families a break from London but was a good way for women and children to earn some money while the men continued working in the docks and factories in the East End of London. The men did come and visit on the weekends as it is believed that hopping had great health benefits. In the book ‘Our Lovely Hops’ Bill Webb says, “ most of us finished up with chest troubles living in London”,57 which isn’t surprising as London was overcrowded with factories emitting dangerous fumes and houses burning coal creating a smoky atmosphere and dust from the coal. The lack of green spaces didn’t help either, and was another reason pickers revelled in the prospect of the countryside and its cleaner air.58 Richard Church even compares the trip to a “journey to Lourdes or Walsingham. Thus they bring their invalids with them”, stating that this was a pilgrimage of healing for them. To transport these vast numbers of people the train network had to adapt to work with the extra capacity. Hopper trains were introduced and staffing was increased to accommodate for the influx, however it was only the “elite” hoppers that could afford the train, a large number travelled down in carts staying in parish shelters as they went. A separate platform was to allow for the hoppers to alight slowly as they brought “a temporary home with them; tables, beds, chairs and even wallpaper to paste up in the huts.”59 The other reason there was a separate platform 54

Grattan, op. cit., The 19th Century - Hop picking [online] Grattan, op. cit., The 19th Century – Hop Picking [online] 56 Age Exchange. 1991. Our Lovely Hops; Memories of Hop-Picking in Kent. London: Age Exchange. p. 4 57 ibid., p. 6 58 ibid., p. 6 59 Church, op. cit., p. 265 55

was because the hordes of hoppers weren’t always welcome by the inhabitants of Kent. The rowdiness that was more common in London between families carried its way down to Kent breaking the tranquility, but it wasn’t just the Londoners that caused disputes. Some of the pickers that were looking for seasonal work were travellers, and they were looked upon sometimes with more disdain than the Londoners. A number of pubs in Kent would put up signs saying ‘no dogs, gypsies or pickers’, and those that didn’t have this sign would sometimes have a different bar with a separate entrance in the back to accommodate for pickers. This wasn’t the case with all hoppers. Due to an Act of Parliament around the trade’s peak, farmers had to “provide good sanitary accommodation for all the hoppers…and see that good food was obtainable”. 60 This was in an attempt to prevent outbreaks of disease which had been a common occurrence due to the poor living conditions that farmers used to supply to the pickers. Remnants of the hoppers huts are seen today. On top of this, local societies, schools and coffee houses were formed. At the end of the picking season was the hopping festival. Much like a village fair, the pickers would drink, play tug of war, have a hoppers princess and do various other sports and festivities to try and boost the morale and welfare of hoppers. All this created a more civilised, joyous, community atmosphere, which created the happy memories hoppers have to this day. Understanding the introduction of the cultural iconography and literature that came about because of the attention the trade brought to it, as well as the physical life of the many people that made the trade viable, has taught us of the importance and influence this trade once had. But what caused one of the largest hop producing areas in the world to become forgotten about? To conclude the topic we will look at why the trade declined and what happened to these agricultural buildings that once dominated the landscape.

Marsh, op. cit., p. 44

33.

34.

35.

Figures 33 - 35: Trainline advertising to encourage the seasonal migration of hop picking to increase sales of tickets 36.

37.

Figure 36 and 37: Hop picker in the ‘crow’s nest’ cutting the vines from the top (left). Traditional hop pickers basket still owned by the Tipples (right). 38.

Figure 38: The tally man counting the bushels and pouring it into his poke - similar to a hop pocket

39.

Figure 39: Hop Pickers Huts and the open fires they cooked on 40.

41.

Figures 40 - 41: Hoppers huts on the Tipples’ Farm. This would house one family 42.

Figure 42: Hoppers shop that was used on the Tipples’ Farm for storing food for hoppers to purchase.

43.

Modern day picking using a tractor to cut and collect the bine. It is then hung and 46.

Hops are then transported via a conveyor belt to the drying floor. On their journey there, 49.

When dried they are packed into square pockets using a mechanical press. They are

44.

drawn through a machine with prongs to strip the leaves and hops. This process 47.

any remaining leaves are filtered out of the batch. On the drying floor hops can be 50.

given a label detailing the variety of hop and farm they came from. Hops nowadays

45.

is marginally less efficient than hand picking, but a lot quicker. 48.

loaded to a greater thickness and more surface area than traditional oasts. 51.

can also be pressed into pellets which are then easier to transport.

Figures 43 - 51: Modern day method of picking, drying and packing hops

Chapter 3 – The Modern Day Hop Trade In this chapter I will talk about the negative impact that mechanisation had on the hop trade, looking briefly at the social deprivation that it caused and then the machinery that is now used. This will go on to talk about the dereliction of oasts and what these buildings are used for nowadays. It is important to note that although there are several different known uses for oast conversions, such as schools and theatres, I will only look at their conversion into habitable houses as that is more commonly seen due to their aesthetic and possibly heritage value. Finally mentioning some modern day examples where the oasts form has inspired architects today to design houses that match this unusual vernacular. Mechanisation Creating Dereliction As previously mentioned the hop trade peaked in England in 1875 with 72,200 acres and from here on it rapidly declined, going down to 57,700 acres in 1889, with a large drop in the early 20th century due to the increase of duty on beer in the UK, which caused other countries to capitalise. Not only this but high-alpha varieties of hops and changing tastes of the public meant brewers needed fewer hops.61 The developments and use of machines in other countries only meant that exports were needed less and less, and the introduction of a shorter variety of hop meant that growing these hops were cheaper than the taller forms. Growing was down to 30,000 acres before the First World War and in the 1920s went down to 25,000 acres with another slump in that decade. Twenty-five out of thirty-seven of Southwark hop warehouses were bombed in the Second World War only furthering the decline. The West Midlands was better off than the South East, as they went from 20% of the total English production in 1875, to 50% by 2000.62 Due to the technological advances that the war had created, mechanisation of agriculture started spreading in the 1950s and ‘60s. Picking and drying became a continuous conveyor belt process shown in Figures 43 - 51. As you can see from the photos, this machinery was too large to fit in traditional oasts so large metal agricultural sheds were constructed instead, causing the dereliction of the historic oast. All this machinery wasn’t cheap and the initial costs represented a major investment that most English farmers couldn’t afford due to only growing a small acreage of hops. Although this machinery has improved the efficiency of the hop trade, the quality of dried hops has not changed significantly. But with our increased understanding of science and technology the newer methods of cultivation have removed the hazards of polluting the hops from the use of impure coal, which led to scares about arsenic poisoning in beer around 1900.63 For all the good the machines seem to have brought, the fact is “a complete way of life had finished… it was the machines that spoiled it all. That’s progress isn’t it? Or is it? 61

Humphrey, Stephen. 2006. “The Hop Trade in Southwark.” Brewery History Number 123 13., p. 9 62 Grattan, op. cit., 20th - 21st Centuries [online] 63 ibid.

Who knows.”64 Nowadays there are few alive that really understood the effect the trade had on Kent. Friendships and memories are a thing of the past and people are now forced to find other ways to work and enjoy their summers, however recent mechanisation and globalisation makes this ideology seem favourable over toiling for hours in a field for “a few bob”.65 But nostalgia set in and the twentieth century saw, transcribed from taped interviews, lively accounts from farmers and pickers about their experiences in the hop gardens, now considered important sociohistorical records. In folk clubs the old hopping songs were remembered, sung and recorded. New museums were created, often in old oast houses such as Beltring oasts,66 celebrating the golden age of ‘Hopping down in Kent’, when work in the hop gardens provided ‘a happy and healthy working holiday’ for London city dwellers. Quite forgotten were the signs of ‘no dogs, gypsies or pickers’ that had been too often displayed in Kent pubs. Anne and Frank Tipples, who used to have 100 families on their farm, said that they missed the hordes of hoppers coming down and the community and buzz that was emitted from these people, despite them “scrumping apples” and having to provide a vast quantity of bedding and firewood for the hoppers to live down in Kent.67 Redevelopment of the Oasts Major redevelopment of the derelict oasts only really happened towards the end of the 20th century, before this most were used for storage, but ones closer to towns were demolished. However, Figure 52 shows the first oast, converted in 1903. In 1959 it became the studio for Daphne Oram, who had left the BBC to set up Oramics Studio for Electronic Composition. Using the roundels acoustic properties she created Oramics, creating electronic music using drawn sound. From the picture you can see that the addition of dormer windows has drastically changed the original outline of the roof of the oast. Another example of a conversion was Rudyard Kipling’s oast at Bateman’s. It was a working oast when he wrote about it in Puck of Pook’s Hill in 1906 [Figure 53]. Although one kiln has been cleverly converted to have a dovecote in place of the cowl, the other kiln’s conical shape has been cut in half obscuring what the building might once have been. Although both developments could be considered an aesthetic improvement and certainly make these oast houses unique, could this be considered damaging to the heritage of the oast? Figures 54-60 shows an oast converted in 1939 by architect Frederick Lucas Marcus for Richard Church to live in, and nowadays occupied by Mr and Mrs Harris, who extended the house after Marcus’ redevelopment. To inform us of the desirability and the construction/preservation of an earlier conversion, I interviewed the Harris’ to gain some valuable insight into their oast house. It is important to note that when the previous examples were converted, the planning regulations to preserve the nature of an oast probably weren’t in place. Having interviewed the Harris’ I learnt that there were some strict design restrictions on what 64

Age Exchange, op. cit., p.102 ibid. p.62 66 See Appendix for pictures of the Hoppers Experience at Beltring Hop Farm, Paddock Wood. 67 Tipples, interview by author, 2020 65

they could alter of the oasts’ original appearance, such as windows in the kilns, and the main barn door dimension’s, although due to the original conversion being in 1939 they were exempt from some regulations. Despite this the residents saw a lot of potential with the round rooms and large barn. When asked why they liked living in an oast, Mr Harris said “The great thing about an oast house is you can put anything in it, old and new giving it great character. They allow you to do all sorts of things with it.”68 The whole house appears very modern and clean, but the decoration and details varies from some historic sculpture/paintings and texture to more modern details and furnishings. Due to the height of the kilns, the architect created three stories within the spaces, which all leave the conical or square shaped roof to extend upwards giving the spaces a unique interesting height to the room that isn’t seen anywhere other than oast houses. Figure 55 shows its outside and that despite the modern interior, the exterior of the place has remained mostly unchanged, showing that in 40 years there was greater consideration to the preservation of these buildings. Today the oast has influenced architects to design new builds that have drawn inspiration from the iconographic shape. Two examples of this are Bumpers Oast [Figure 61], designed by acme architects, and more notably the 2017 RIBA House of the Year – Caring Wood [Figure 62], designed by James Macdonald Wright and Niall Maxwell.

w 68

Harris, Antony and Sylvie, interview by Author. 2020. What is it like living in an oast house? (2 September).

52.

53.

Figures 52 and 53: Daphne Oram’s converted oast house (left) and Rudyard Kipling’s converted dovecote oast house (right) 54.

55.

56.

Figure 54 - 56: The Harris’ House. View from road (Fig. 54) and the main extended entrance (Fig. 55). The spare rooms showing the use of a mezzanine floor due to the conical heigh of the ceiling (Fig. 56)

57.

58.

Figures 57 and 58: The Harris’ House in 1939 (left) and in 2020 (right). Only the front door had changed due to the Harris’ extension. 59.

60.

Figures 59 and 60: Pictures providing evidence and showing us the window that Richard Church looked out of when writing several of his books. The hop gardens are now apple orchards. 61.

62.

Figures 61 - 62: Bumpers Oast by acme (left). Caring Wood by James Macdonald Wright and Niall Maxwell (right)

Conclusion “No epoch has deliberately produced so many archives as ours, due alike to technical advances in reproduction and conservation and to our superstitious respect for these traces. As traditional memory fades, we feel obliged religiously to accumulate the testimonies, documents, images, and visible signs of what was, as if this everproliferating dossier should be called on as evidence in some tribunal of history. Hence the inhibition against destroying, the retention of everything. . . . In classical times, only great families, the church, and the state kept records; today memories are recorded” 69 – Pierre Nora Buildings become icons, symbols in history and memories that are forgotten, this historical account and many others only scratches the surface of the 400 year hop trade and oast house history within Kent and beyond. Whether this account is an idealised version or perhaps deglamourised for the pickers that enjoyed working the gardens is dependent on the point of view. Our memories are changed nonetheless and we must not look towards preserving “not just the physical building but also the people it has inspired and their system of social relations” in whatever ways we can as it is part of our cultural identity.70 In Chinese tradition they maintain their history more poetically than pictorially and had the idea that “Memory of art, not its physical persistence, suffused consciousness and spurred new creations… not for want of skills ‘but because of a different attitude about how to achieve an enduring monument’.”71 This ideology adds importance to speech/ literature and memory, putting greater importance on the atmosphere, mood and poetics of history, something that I believe is perhaps more relevant to the hop trade within the UK. Indeed, Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger believed that preservation of physical buildings can sometimes be a “deceitful manipulation of the past”.72 The oasts remain nowadays as an integral part of Kentish vernacular, but they are seen as idyllic homes that dot the landscape of Kent creating a picturesque scene and intimate connection to history, contrasting to the smoke that once guzzled out of their chimneys and the many hours spent toiling in the heat of the oast and the scorch of the late summer sun in the gardens. The trade will never again be as powerful as it once was making the memories of people the purest account of history for this topic. The older Tipples are just one example of people that can maintain the true history of the trade as they lived through it and recognised it. The religious like behaviour towards it is so profound on some that the Tipples have a hop-picker that flies over from New Zealand each year because his 69

Nora, Pierre, ‘Entre mémoire et histoire’, in Les Lieux de mémoire (Paris: Gallimard, 1984–92), 1: xxv–xxviii. 70 Otero-Pailos, Jorge. 2016. “Experimental Preservation.” Places Journal. September. Accessed January 16, 2021. https://placesjournal.org/article/experimental-preservation/?cnreloaded=1&cn-reloaded=1. 71 Lowenthal, David. 2015. The Past is a Foreign Country. Vol. 2. New York: Cambridge University Press. Accessed January 5, 2021. https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https:// doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139024884., p 95 72 Otero-Pailos, op. cit., [online]

grandparents used to work on their farm, and he wanted to try it out – he has now been there for four years.73 For a greater insight into the lives of people that went hopping, ‘Our Lovely Hops: Memories of Hop-Picking in Kent’ provides detailed accounts and pictures of many hoppers that went hopping as well as an article that describes how the Tipples were some of the last people employing hoppers and trying to prolong the life of the trade. All this might be considered true, but memory “transmutes experience, distils the past rather than simply reflecting it”74 and they become merged with time and diminish showing only a small fraction of the past. This places greater importance on preserving the physical things that outlast generations and memories, things like the oast. However, with a world that is changing as rapidly as ours, preservation of “even the recent past [becomes] irrecoverably remote”, 75 and even our desire to live in and celebrate oasts proves lethal, as the heritage we see could just become another form of housing. So what is the best way to preserve history?

Tipples, interview by author, 2020 Lowenthal, op. cit., p 417 75 ibid., p 417 74

End

List of Figures

Page

Cover page - Photo of Beltring Oasts - the largest collection of oasts in the world located in Paddock Wood, Kent. Taken by author Figure 1 - Map of England showing the counties where hops were most commonly grown. Drawn by author

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Figure 2 - A hop garden. Photo by author

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Figure 3 - A hop bine. Photo by author

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Figure 4 - Geological map of Kent also highlighting the 1861 acreage of hops - near its peak. Drawn by author, original geological map sourced from; Chalkin, Christopher William. 1965. Seventeenth-century Kent: A social and economic history. 1st. London: Longmans.

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Figure 5 - Agricultural land use map of Kent also highlighting key towns. Drawn by author, originally sourced from Chalkin, Christopher William. 1965. Seventeenthcentury Kent: A social and economic history. 1st. London: Longmans.

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Figure 6 - The Hop Exchange in Southwark, London. Engraving of the original. Original source Humphrey, Stephen. 2006. “The Hop Trade in Southwark.” Brewery History Number 123 13.

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Figure 7 - Photo of the current Hop Exchange, the top two floors were burnt in a fire so have been altered from its full splendour. Authors Own

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Figure 8 - View of Borough High Street, Southwark, London, 1729, showing the open market, in the foreground, the Town Hall, and St George the Martyr. Original source - Humphrey, Stephen. 2006. “The Hop Trade in Southwark.” Brewery History Number 123 13.

Figure 9 - Borough High Street, 1837. Original Source - Humphrey, Stephen. 2006. “The Hop Trade in Southwark.” Brewery History Number 123 13.

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Figure 10 - Diagrams showing Scot’s model of an oast. Drawn by author, originally sourced from http:// oastandhopkilnhistory.com/

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Figure 11 - Little Golford’s Oast diagram - the earliest surviving oast which dates from the 1740’s. Drawn by author, originally sourced from http:// oastandhopkilnhistory.com/

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Figure 12 - Drawing of an old barn that was used to dry hops. Drawn by author.

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Page Figure 13 - Axonometric showing the internal layout of barns like the drawing above. Drawn by author, originally sourced from http://oastandhopkilnhistory.com/

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Figure 14 - Massing floorplans showing the potential layout for kilns within an oast. Drawn by author, originally sourced fromhttp://oastandhopkilnhistory.com/

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Figure 15 - Early 17th/18th century oast house. Drawn by author, originally sourced from http:// oastandhopkilnhistory.com/

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Figure 16 - Close up drawing of a hop press. Drawn by author.

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Figure 17 - Drawings showing the different styles of cowls. The highlighted cowl is what makes Kent oasts unique. Drawn by author, originally sourced from http://oastandhopkilnhistory.com/

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Figure 18 - The Sussex style cowl. Drawn by author, originally sourced from http://oastandhopkilnhistory.com/

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Figure 19 - The Herefordshire/Worcestershire cowls. Drawn by author, originally sourced from http:// oastandhopkilnhistory.com/

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Figure 20 - Other variants of Cowls. Drawn by author, originally sourced from http://oastandhopkilnhistory.com/

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Figure 21 - Other variants of Cowls. Drawn by author, originally sourced from http://oastandhopkilnhistory.com/

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Figure 22 - Other variants of Cowls. Drawn by author, originally sourced from http://oastandhopkilnhistory.com/

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Figure 23 - Floor plans and sections of some 18th century oasts variants. Drawn by author, originally sourced from http://oastandhopkilnhistory.com/

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Figure 24 - Section of an oast in the late 18th with a reverberator plate to distribute heat evenly. Drawn by author, originally sourced from http:// oastandhopkilnhistory.com/

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Figure 25 - Section of an oast in the 19th with pipes to distribute heat evenly. Drawn by author, originally sourced from http://oastandhopkilnhistory.com/

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Figure 26 - A common German hop kiln. Original source https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/hop-kiln. html

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Figure 27 - Two hop kilns in Austria with varying cowls on their roofs. Original source - https://www.alamy. com/stock-photo/hop-kiln.html

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Page Figure 28 - Four hop kilns in the Czech Republic. Original source - https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/ hop-kiln.html

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Figure 29 - An American style oast. This design was seen in other parts of the world as well. Authors own.

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Figure 30 - Three hop kilns in America. Original source https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/hop-kiln. html

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Figure 31 - ‘The Hop Gardens of England’ by Cecil Gordon Lawson. In Tate Britain. Original source - https:// www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lawson-the-hopgardens-of-england-t13443

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Figure 32 - ‘The Hop Pickers’ by George Smith of Chicester. Private collection. Original source - https://www. christies.com/en/lot/lot-5159382

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Figure 33 - Trainline advertising to encourage the seasonal migration of hop picking for increase sales of tickets. Original source - https://www.pinterest. de/pin/173670129367881572/

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Figure 34 - Trainline advertising to encourage the seasonal migration of hop picking for increase sales of tickets. Original source - Poster, Southern Railway, The Londoner’s Garden - Kent by Gregory Brown, 1926

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Figure 35 - Trainline advertising to encourage the seasonal migration of hop picking for increase sales of tickets. Original source - Poster; Live in Kent and be content, by Ethelbert White, 1926.

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Figure 36 - Hop picker in the ‘crow’s nest’ cutting the vines from the top. Original source - https://www. alamy.com/stock-photo/hop-pickers.html

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Figure 37 - Traditional hop pickers basket still owned by the Tipples. Authors own.

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Figure 38 - The tally man counting the bushels and pouring it into his poke - similar to a hop pocket. Original source - https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/ hop-pickers.html

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Figure 39 - Hop Pickers Huts and the open fires they cooked on. Original source - https://www.alamy.com/ stock-photo/hop-pickers.html

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Figure 40 - Hoppers huts on the Tipples’ Farm. Authors own.

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Figure 41 - This would house one family. Authors own.

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Figure 42 - Hoppers shop that was used on the Tipple’s Farm for storing food for hoppers to purchase. Authors own.

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Figure 43 - Modern day method of picking, drying and packing hops. Authors own.

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Figure 44 - Modern day method of picking, drying and packing hops. Authors own.

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Figure 45 - Modern day method of picking, drying and packing hops. Authors own.

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Figure 46 - Modern day method of picking, drying and packing hops. Authors own.

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Figure 47 - Modern day method of picking, drying and packing hops. Authors own.

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Figure 48 - Modern day method of picking, drying and packing hops. Authors own.

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Figure 49 - Modern day method of picking, drying and packing hops. Authors own.

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Figure 50 - Modern day method of picking, drying and packing hops. Authors own.

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Figure 51 - Modern day method of picking, drying and packing hops. Authors own.

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Figure 52 - Daphne Oram’s converted oast house. Original source - https://stanstedandfairseat.blogspot. com/2012/03/daphne-oram-of-tower-follyfairseat.html

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Figure 53 - Rudyard Kipling’s converted dovecote oast house. Original source - https://www.pinterest.co.uk/ pin/560135272408093047/

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Figure 54 - The Harris’ House. View from road. Authors own.

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Figure 55 - The main extended entrance. Authors own.

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Figure 56 - The spare rooms showing the use of a mezzanine floor due to the conical heigh of the ceiling. Authors own.

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Figure 57 - The Harris’ House in 1939. Original Source https://www.architecture.com/image-library/ RIBApix/image-information/poster/oast-houseconversion-for-richard-and-katherina-churchcurtisden-green-kent-the-living-room/posterid/ RIBA50500.html

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Figure 58 - The Harris’ House in 2020. Only the front door had changed due to the Harris’ extension. Authors own.

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Figure 59 - Pictures providing evidence and showing us the window that Richard Church looked out of when writing several of his books. The hop gardens are now apple orchards. Authors own.

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Figure 60 - Pictures providing evidence and showing us the window that Richard Church looked out of when writing several of his books. The hop gardens are now apple orchards. Authors own.

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Figure 61 - Bumpers Oast by acme. Original Source - https:// www.dezeen.com/2020/01/13/bumpers-oasthouse-acme-kent/

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Figure 62 - Caring Wood by James Macdonald Wright and Niall Maxwell. Original Source - https://www. architecture.com/awards-and-competitionslanding-page/awards/riba-regional-awards/ riba-south-east-award-winners/2017/caringwood

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Bibliography - Age Exchange. 1991. Our Lovely Hops; Memories of Hop-Picking in Kent. London: Age Exchange. - Anne Tipples, Frank Tipples, interview by Author. 2020. Hop Farming - A Live Account from Neighbouring Farmers (September 8). - Chalkin, Christopher William. 1965. Seventeenth-century Kent: A social and economic history. 1st. London: Longmans. - Church, Richard. 1948. Kent . 9th. London: Robert Hale & Company. - Culpeper, Nicholas. 1653. The Complete Herbal. 1st. London: Paternoster Row. - David Hughson, LL.D. 1806. London being an accurate History and Description of the British Metropolis and its Neighbourhood, to thirty miles extent, from an actual Perambulation. 3rd. London: W. Stratford. - Doel, Fran and Geoff. 2014. The Hop Bin; An Anthropology of Hop Picking in Kent and East Sussex. 1st. Stroud: The History Press. - Fiennes, Celia. 1982. The Illustrated Journeys of Celia Fiennes. London: Macdonald and Co. - Grattan, Patrick. 2015. Oast and Hop Kiln History. Accessed October 15, 2020. http://oastandhopkilnhistory.com/. - Grieve, Mrs M. 1973. A Modern Herbal - The medicinal, culinary, cosmetic, and economic properties, cultivation and folklore of herbs, grasses, fungi, shrubs and trees with all their modern scientific uses. 2nd. West Molesey: Merchant Book Company Ltd. - Harris, Antony and Sylvie, interview by Author. 2020. What is it like living in an oast house (September 2). - Humphrey, Stephen. 2006. “The Hop Trade in Southwark.” Brewery History Number 123 13. - John Archibald, L.R.I.B.A, M.T.P.I, M.G.A. 1934. Kentish Architecture as Influenced by Geology. 1st. Ramsgate: The Monastery Press. - Jones, Gwen; Bell, John. 1992. Oasthouses in Sussex and Kent: Their History and Development. 1st. Chichester: Phillimore & Co. Ltd. . - Kipling, Rudyard. 1994. Pucks of Pook’s Hill. First. London: Bloomsbury Books. - Levy, Juliette de Bairacli. 1997. Common Herbs for Natural Health. 2nd. New York: Ash Tree Publishing. - Locke, Peter E. 1953. “The Design of Oast-houses.” Country Life, September 17: 911. - Lowenthal, David. 2015. The Past is a Foreign Country. Vol. 2. New York: Cambridge University Press. Accessed January 5, 2021. https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139024884. - Mabey, Richard. 1996. Flora Britannica: the definitive guide to wild flowers, plants and trees. 1st. London: Reed International Books Ltd. - Major, Alan. 2006. The Oasthouses Their Life and Times. 1st. Seaford: S.B. Publications. 43

- Marsh, John. 1892. Hops and Hopping. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co. Ltd. - Mayfair Gallery. 2018. 19th Century European Painting: Key Styles & Movements. July 16. Accessed November 22, 2020. https://www.mayfairgallery. com/blog/19th-century-european-painting-styles-movements#:~:text=In%20 1800%2C%20at%20the%20turn,sculpture%20and%20the%20decorative%20 arts. - McFarland, Ben; Sandham, Tom. 2017. Spectator Life. November 7. Accessed December 29, 2020. https://life.spectator.co.uk/articles/a-brief-history-of-battlefield-boozing/. - Nora, Pierre ‘Entre mémoire et histoire’, in Les Lieux de mémoire (Paris: Gallimard, 1984–92), 1: xxv–xxviii. - Otero-Pailos, Jorge. 2016. “Experimental Preservation.” Places Journal. September. Accessed January 16, 2021. https://placesjournal.org/article/ experimental-preservation/?cn-reloaded=1&cn-reloaded=1. - Scot, Reynolde. 1576. A Perfite Platforme of a Hoppe Garden. 2nd. London: Henrie Denham. - Smart, Christopher. 1752. The Hop-Garden. A Georgic. In Two Books. 1st. London: printed for the author, by W. Strahan; and sold by J. Newbery, at the Bible and Sun, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard. - Smith, Alison. 2011. The Hop-Gardens of England. April. Accessed December 29, 2020. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lawson-the-hop-gardens-of-england-t13443. - Walton, Robin; Walton, Ivan. 1998. Kentish Oasts - 16th-20th Century, their history construction and equipment. 1st. Canterbury: Christine Swift.

Appendix 63.

Figure 63: Locke, Peter E. 1953. “The Design of Oast-houses.” Country Life, September 17: 911.

64.

Figure 64: Locke, Peter E. 1953. “The Design of Oast-houses.” Country Life, September 17: 911. p.860

65.

Figure 65: Locke, Peter E. 1953. “The Design of Oast-houses.” Country Life, September 17: 911. p.861

66.

Figure 66: Locke, Peter E. 1953. “The Design of Oast-houses.” Country Life, September 17: 911. p.862

Beltring Oast houses 67.

Figure 67: Beltring Oasts view from entrance showing the later 20th century oasts. Authors own

68.

Figure 68: Beltring Oasts view from playground showing the Victorian oasts. Authors own

The largest victorian collection of oasts in the world. Now it is a leisure attraction called the Hop Farm. 69.

Figure 69: Beltring Oasts view of oasts. Authors own

70.

Figure 70: The Hop Musuem in the former hop huts. Authors own

71.

Figure 72: Receiving the Letter. Pictured in Figure 71 on the far right. Authors own.

73.

Figure 74: Bell Tents. Pictured in Figure 71 on the far left. Authors own.

72.

Figure 73: Arriving at the Station. Pictured in Figure 71 (page 50) on the left. Authors own.

74.

Figure 75: Hoppers Huts. Pictured in Figure 71 (page 49) on the right. Authors own.

75.

Figure 71: Panaramic view inside the Beltring Hop musuem showing the various activities that hoppers did when coming down to Kent. Story starts from left to right. Authors own.

76.

Figure 76: The Stiltman at Beltring Hop musuem. Authors own.

77.

Figure 77: The Pole Puller and Hop Pickers at Beltring Hop musuem. Authors own.

78.

Figure 78: Pocketing at Beltring Hop musuem. Authors own.

79.

Figure 79: Days Off and at Beltring Hop musuem. Authors own.

80.

Figure 80: Doctor on call at Beltring Hop musuem. Authors own.

81.

Figure 81: Travellers at Beltring Hop musuem. Authors own.

82.

Figure 82: The Hop Queen at Beltring Hop musuem. Authors own.

Interview with the Tipples family. Frank, Anne and their son, Ian Tipples – September 2020 How long has the farm been in your family and have you always grown hops? The farm was bought by Frank’s great –grandparents in 1840, and we have always grown hops. At present we grow five different varieties over 45 acres. In 1840 10 acres were given over to hops. How easy is it to grow hops and are there special requirements for growing them? Hops ideally want an even temperature throughout the growing season. If you have a cold spring and a hot summer, the bines tend to become top heavy. They are prone to mildew and now we treat them with a fungicide. In the past they would have used sulphur sticks on metal pans. Hops grow up long strings and nowadays we use long poles to attach the strings to the top wire. In the past people would have used stilts to do this job. We still have to encourage the vines to grow up the string, and therefore we manually do this. Hop vines grow in a clockwise direction which is the opposite to runner beans. How many workers do you employ during the hop picking season and where do they come from? We employ seasonal workers – 3 are local, we have some from Eastern European and over the last two years they have come from a number of different countries, and one from New Zealand. The New Zealander wanted to experience hop picking because his grandparent had hop picked at our farm in the past and he has so enjoyed it, he has returned a couple of times. In the past, the majority of our pickers came from the East End of London. Each year Tower Hamlets Community Housing still stages a Hop Picking Festival. https://spitalfieldslife.com/2014/09/05/hop-picking-portraits/ How were the hops harvested and how are they harvested now? The hops bines were cut at the bottom and were then pulled down. Now we cut the strings at both the bottom and top using a hatchet. The pickers would then pick off the individual hop flowers and drop them in to baskets. The tally man would go around at the end of the day checking how many baskets the pickers had filled and they would be paid for the amount they had picked. The hops are now mechanically stripped. Albert Philbin was the first person to invent the mechanised picking. We use a tractor with a fork like extrusion that gathers the hop cuts it and then pulls it off the top string. What was the hop pickers experience like? The hop pickers loved coming down to the farm each year. It was wonderful 58

to welcome them each year. We can remember a wedding taking place whilst they were down picking. What is the difference between how you dry your hops today compared to when they were dried in your traditional oast houses? Hops need to be dried quickly preferably on the same day as they are picked. In the older times we used to employ pickers, but nowadays its all done by machine with some people overseeing the equipment. Once picked they’re taken to the oast to dry. They should not be heated up too much, cooler temperatures will mean that they dry more slowly, but it will produce a better quality hop. Originally they would take between 8 to 12 hours depending on the weather conditions, and you’d have to have about 4 in the oast. Today we can dry hops in about 6 hours at 150 degrees fahrenheit using chimneys and fans on the bottom and the top of the drier, that only takes one maybe two to do it all. When the oast houses were used, usually two batches of hops could be dried in 24 hours. The hops can now be made in to pellets and we send them to Paddock Wood to a co-operative who then sell the hops for us. How many people did you employ in the past to pick your hops and how are the hops picked now? We used to have as many as 100 families coming to the farm and they would be able to pick around 100 bushels per day. With help of the machine, we can now pick 300 bushels in a day and only need about 10-20 people maximum. Who in the family came down to pick the hops and what did the farm have to provide for them? It was mainly the women, children and non-working people in the families ie grandparents who came down for the whole season. The men only came down at the weekends as they were working in the docks and other industries in London. We would have to be well prepared as we had to supply firewood and straw for mattresses and we set up a shop where the pickers could buy food and supplies. Did you have any problems with such a large work force? On the whole they were fine. We did have to keep an eye on the orchards because the little ones would sometimes scrump apples or pears or that! If it was pouring with rain, they wouldn’t be able to work. If the season had been wet, the hops tended to be smaller. How many hops do you need to make beer? You need about three hops per pint of beer. In the past as many as 15 hops were used per pint, but that’s because of the variety. The yield back then of hops was probably a bit higher than it is today due to overfarming.

83.

Figure 83: Photo of a Hop garden after stringing. Authors own.

84.

Figure 84: Photo of stringers winding the vines around the hop strings early in the season. Authors own.

85.

Figure 85: Photo of stringers winding the vines around the hop strings earlier in the season. Authors own.

86.

87.

Figures 86 and 87: Internal pictures of the now unused sqaure oast that the Tipples previously used. Authors own.

88.

89.

Figures 88 and 89: Mrs Tipple showing the height that oast hairs (large hessian sheets) would be put at to then hold the hops when they were drying (left). The Tipples old hop pocket with their details on. Authors own.

90.

Figure 90: View what used to be the ‘common’ at the Tipples farm. This area would house 100 families. Authors own.

91.

Figure 91: Photo of some unused hoppers huts on another area of the Tipples farm. Authors own.

92.

93.

Figures 92 and 93: Photo of the scumpet that is still used today as it was with traditional oasts for scoping the dry hops up and onto the cooling floor/conveyor for packing. Authors own.

94.

95.

Figures 94 and 95: Photos of the tractor and fork that collect the hops. People are still used to ensure they fall into the trailer properly (left). Hops bines being hooked onto the machinery. Authors own.

96.

97.

Figures 96 and 97: Overview photo of the machine belt process (left). The hop bines after being stripped (left). Authors own.

98.

99.

Figures 98 and 99: After being stripped the leaves and other matter is filtered out of so that only hops are dried (left). View of the furnace underneath the cooling floor (right), an additional metal grating was added to prevent fires, as even the modern oasts can burn down if not properly protected. Authors own.

Interview with Antony and Sylvie Harris - September 2020. When were the oast houses converted and when did you add to them? The oast was being used as a store before being converted in 1939 by author, Richard Church, using Frederick Lucas Marcus, a Bauhaus architect, who had recently emigrated from Germany – A number of Richard’s books have illustrations of the oast house. https://www.architecture.com/image-library/RIBApix/imageinformation/poster/oast-house-conversion-for-richard-and-katherinachurch-curtisden-green-kent-the-living-room/posterid/RIBA50500.html We did an upgrade in 2009 with some rebuilding, which created a new entrance hall, but it’s not much different, however gaining planning permission was quite difficult. Do you like living in an oast house? What aspects do you like and dislike? Well yes, this oast appears in 1860 on the ordnance survey map originally showing two oasts, which then became 3 – the square oast was added in 1920, and by then cherries were being grown on the farm as well as hops. When Richard Church bought he re-used some of the bricks to build a chimney. We love this oast because of the view, and it has real character. The layout and design of the building allows you to do all sorts of things with it. Many people like to retain/add beams with low ceilings to give them an antique appeal. The planning authorities are now much stricter if you are converting an oast today – the windows need to be small and the barn entrance with the doors has to be kept. Due to the fact that our oast has previously been converted, we had a bit more free reign on the design. It was important for us that the house let in plenty of light, we didn’t want to live in a dark house – we found only one company that did large single pane double glazed windows for our new entrance. We added 6 inches to the height and changed the wooden beams of the ceiling to steel with rods. We consulted five architects, but ended up with a designer not an architect. All the architects seemed to want to follow their own designs, but not the client’s! It did take one year to design everything. We have a copy of the picture of Basil Spence’s staircase which he designed for Gribloch House in Stirlingshire and that influenced our design for the staircase. Things did change as the build went on. 100.

Figure 100: Picture of staircase at Gribloch House

One of the roundels is a study now. We designed octagonal bookshelves with curved frontages. The doors to the outside were designed by John Bullock and are large glazed sliding doors. The great thing about an oast house is you can put anything in it – in terms of furniture – old and new. We have a 1910 (Edwardian) fireplace with modern furniture. When you enter the house you are in the central atrium which is open plan and the main rooms leading off it give a feeling of open plan but are not – “every room has its integrity”. The study in the roundel is cosy and a single room. My parents [Antony Harris’] knew Richard Church and they bought the house from him. They painted all the walls white as they had a collection of paintings (Antony’s grandmother was the artist Lady Frieda Harris) which was the main focus of the decoration. Would you consider the oast to be an iconic symbol of the South East? We see the oast as both an industrial and now an iconic symbol of the south east. It was interesting to note that during the 30 years’ war the British discovered the taste for Dutch beer, which is hopped beer. For a long time oasts have been referred to as The Old Ladies of Kent because the cowls remind people of the bonnets, that ladies wore in the Victorian times. If the symbolism wasn’t a factor, was the intriguing shape more of an appeal to you? Regarding the shape of the oasts, they concluded in 1800 that round oasts drew better, but by 1900 they realised it actually made no difference. Later on the need for a chimney was abandoned so that the kilns (oasts) became more like European/American models.

Figure 101: Kentish Ragstone Oast. Authors own.

Photos of my Trip to Great Dixter house and Oast. Converted from a barn to an oast. Authors own.

Photos the old hoppers platform at Marden Authors own.