Leigh Park Farm Oast

Believed to have been built between 1860-80 (although there is a building of some sort on the same site on the 1841 map), the oast at Leigh Park Farm has a number of different features. It is surrounded on two sides by a pond. The barn is squarer than most and has three floors. It is L-shaped and half tile-hung on the exterior. The hop press, no longer in existence, was housed on the second floor which opens straight into the drying floors of the roundels without the customary use of crickets. The roundels, again 20ft. external diameter, are taller as at Paul's Farm, are in Flemish bond and both have square dentelling.

Hops were 'grubbed' on this farm in 1918, so this oast-house was only used for its original purpose for under half a century. For the rest of its life it has been used for miscellaneous agricultural purposes, mainly storage as at present. The cowls were removed c.1970. It has been allowed to deteriorate and is in urgent need of repair if it is to survive as a particularly interesting and unusual memorial to the Victorian hop industry.