Moorden Oast

Moorden Oast is arguably the most exciting of the Leigh oasts, notwithstanding it having been ravaged by fire in 1988. It was the most complex and possibly oldest (in part) in Leigh.

A map of 1810 shows nothing on the site but the 1841 Tithe Map shows a barn-like building with a small central projection on the north elevation. It is known that fairly early in the 19th century a small timber-framed building was erected; this was under-built in brick and weather-boarded. As hops were grown on the farm at this time, this could have been an oast with an inset kiln and the projection depicting staging and steps. Sometime in the 1840s a small (16ft. diameter) brick roundel was added to the east end. The barn, or maybe its replacement, together with the roundel
is all that is shown on the 1870 OS map but it is believed that the second roundel (20 ft.) was added to the west end soon after to cope with the industry peak of the 1870s. This is shown on the 1908 OS. map.

Adjacent to the older roundel at the east end, a square kiln was built in 1933, originally with a coal-burning furnace but this was replaced by a diesel-powered boiler in 1968 (which was still in evidence before the re-construction in 2004) and an overhead fan. A robust loading platform across the east end was built around the same time such that hops loaded on to this could be fed into both roundels. .

Hops were processed here right up to 1988 when a bizarre sequence of events caused the oast to be destroyed by fire. Towards the end of the hop harvest, an electrical fault caused a serious fire in the farmhouse, some 80 yards away from the oast complex. The fire brigade were soon in attendance and brought the fire under control. They left the site unaware that some precious furniture had been saved from the fire and carried to the oast for safety - together with a spark from the fire. At midnight the fire brigade were back on site dealing with the ashes of the oast, the fire having found pocketfuls of dried hops very much to its liking!

Permission to rebuild the oast proved a long process and an elusive target for Patrick Hills, the then owner. After many refusals, mainly on Green Belt grounds, permission was granted on appeal in 1997 for its reinstatement but not for its conversion. Whilst a step in the right direction, an oast-house of this size on a farm producing fewer and fewer hops was neither a practical nor commercial proposition. A second battle commenced to attain permission for an alternative use. Five years later, permission has been granted for its conversion to residential use together with an office, albeit with a condition that most of the oast’s primary architectural features were to be retained. The re-construction of the property has produced the largest residential oast-house in the parish.