Oast Houses in Kent: Playden Oasts Inn

I was fascinated with oast houses since I first saw them in Kent, England a few years ago. Oast houses were used for drying hops to make alcohol. There are not many of these left, but they were once common in Kent. In older times (early 1900s and 1800s), people from London used to go to the Kent countryside to pick the hops to earn some money, and it was a holiday for them. Whole families would go to pick hops in the summer months.

Oast house

When venturing to Kent during the last trip, we stopped off at The Playden Oasts Inn in Playden, which is near to Rye in Kent. The oast house has been converted to an inn and restaurant, so we had a meal here. It was nice. We were the only ones in the restaurant.

The interior retained a rustic feel, and there were plastic hops covering the timber frames along with various tools for picking and drying hops on the walls. The rooms were circular in shape. 

I took a photograph of what we ate. I had chicken with leeks and a stilton cheese sauce. The other meal was a steak pie with vegetables and chips. 

I enjoyed my visit to the oast house, Playden Oasts Inn.