Whitbread Hop Farm, Beltring 1978

This authentic 1970s colour photograph, captured in 1978, features the extensive complex of oast houses at the Whitbread Hop Farm in Beltring, near Paddock Wood, Kent. The archival image documents one of the largest collections of these traditional Kentish structures, used for drying hops as part of the regional brewing industry. The composition showcases multiple rows of red brick roundels topped with characteristic conical tiled roofs and white wooden cowls designed to pivot with the wind. The farm buildings are a mix of brick and white-painted weatherboarded structures with dark tiled roofs. A prominent sign on one of the larger buildings reads “Beltring The Whitbread Hop Farm,” accompanied by the company’s white horse logo. The site is viewed across a grassy field under a bright blue sky with scattered clouds, preserving a key site of English agricultural and industrial heritage. By 1978, while mechanical picking had largely replaced manual labour, the site remained a significant landmark of the Garden of England.