Surrey Homes | SH114 | July 2024 | Property Supplement inside
The lifestyle magazine for Surrey - Inspirational Interiors, Fabulous Fashion, Delicious Dishes
The lifestyle magazine for Surrey - Inspirational Interiors, Fabulous Fashion, Delicious Dishes
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Above: The dining area has lovely views over the<br />
garden. The beautiful tablescaping is by local company<br />
Beyond the Table (beyondthetable.co.uk) The conical<br />
rattan pendant light above the table is by Nkuku<br />
and like many Victorians, has a solid air. Although recently<br />
refurbished, it is an established conversion and has been<br />
a home for several families since then. It must be very<br />
interesting to own an oast house – they are such symbolic<br />
buildings and the Weald in particular has a large number,<br />
some dating back to the sixteenth century. Kent has the<br />
ideal soil and conditions for growing hops and had plenty<br />
of wood for the kilns, so the industry quickly grew and<br />
flourished here. The landscape is now famous for these<br />
wonderful buildings, although hop farming has declined and<br />
nearly all of them have been converted to other uses now.<br />
The iconic round shape of a Kentish roundel oast is lovely<br />
to look at, but circular rooms are hard to furnish without<br />
spending a fortune. The oasts here are square with pyramidal<br />
roofs, rather than roundels, which is lucky – these have all<br />
the character, but are practical too. “My neighbour’s house<br />
has many more original features, there aren’t many left here,”<br />
says Tricia, “but we have lots of wonderful photographs<br />
of the original oast back in the hop drying days. This<br />
place was converted to a residential dwelling in 1983.”<br />
“We are near the hop picker line – the trains that bought<br />
people in, mainly from East London, to pick hops in the<br />
summer. They were staying in pretty basic conditions<br />
I think, but then it was an escape from the city and <br />
priceless-magazines.com<br />
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