Oast house and stowage at Strawberry Hall

Mid-C19 oast house, stowage and storage shed.   MATERIALS: all are built of brick laid in Sussex bond. The first floor of the stowage to the east side is clad in weather boarding to a timber frame. The roofs are slate-tiled.   PLAN: a circular oast house to the south, attached to a rectangular two-storey, three-bay stowage aligned north to south, with a storage shed on the ground floor to the north end.   EXTERIOR: the circular oast house is built of red and grey brick rising to a modillion course, and has a timber-planked door to the east side. The conical roof is terminated by an open, flat top. The roundel and cone are believed to survive but have been dismantled.

The stowage roof is hipped to both ends. The principal east elevation has red-brick piers separating three sets of planked cart-doors to the ground floor. The first floor is horizontally planked. At the southern end there is a an external timber stair which rises to a small landing, providing access via a timber-planked door to the first floor. The northern elevation is also of red brick. The south elevation is blind and built of red and grey brick. The west elevation is thought to also be blind. The storage shed is faced in red and grey brick under a pitched roof, and has a planked door to the south end.   INTERIOR: the kiln is on the ground floor along with an access door to the ground floor of the stowage. It has a thin permeable floor to the first-floor chamber, which has plastered walls, a lagged, heating pipe to each side and a central chain to open or close the vent. The ground floor of the stowage retains its cart bays. The first floor has a timber-boarded floor with a trap door. To the south, there are timber double doors to the drying floor and also a single, taking-in door to the north side. The brick wall to the west has two, brick-filled former openings. The roof has tie beams running east to west with joints suggesting a former mezzanine. The roof timbers are machine-cut and formed of common rafters and purlins, meeting at a ridge board. The storage shed is a single open space.