Annunciata Walton rounds up some oast houses - fine examples of vernacular architecture that were once used to dry fresh hops.
East Sussex, £1.695 million
In the High Weald AONB, close to Ticehurst village and Wadhurst, The Oast has six bedrooms, a dramatic oak-framed indoor swimming-pool area and landscaped grounds adjoining farmland. Roundel rooms include a bedroom, two bathrooms and the kitchen/breakfast room. There’s also a minstrels’ gallery and a Wendy house and London is about 50 miles away.
Savills (01892 507 000)
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Kent, £1.295 million
With one round kiln tower and one square, unusual, mid-Victorian The Slade Oasts is about seven miles from Tunbridge Wells, near Lamberhurst village (four miles from Wadhurst station), and comes with two acres of delightful grounds. The sitting room has a wood-burning stove, exposed brick and timber walls and French doors into the garden. There’s also an impressive glass garden room, a roundel dining room, two roundel bedrooms and the master bedroom has a mezzanine en-suite bathroom.
Batcheller Monkhouse (01892 512 020)
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East Sussex, £3.95 million
In rolling countryside, Lodgefield Farm consists of a Grade II-listed four-bedroom farmhouse, a four-bedroom oast house, a farm cottage and an office at the centre of a 200-acre ring-fenced estate running down to the River Medway. Near Groombridge, the property benefits from non-farming income from commercial units, which currently house a cookery school, an office, a Pilates studio and a firewood business. The overall estate income totals just over £60,000 per year and London is only 35 miles away, less than an hour by train.
Knight Frank (020–7629 8171)
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Kent, £975,000
Offering the best of both worlds, four-bedroom Crittenden Oast, just outside Matfield village, presents a charming picture, tucked away off a farm track with views of the North Downs, but only 3.8 miles from Paddock Wood. It comes with a garden room and nearly two acres of enclosed garden and private woodland and trains to London take just over 40 minutes.
Savills (01892 507 000)
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East Sussex, £700,000
In landscaped gardens with a paddock and woodland, between the villages of Staplecross and Bodiam in ‘1066 country’, Hollow Wall Oast dates from the mid 18th century, although the roundels were added in 1843. It has four bedrooms, a wood-burning stove and a rose garden and its history is documented in several notable books on oast houses.
Jackson-Stops & Staff (01580 720 000)
