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Enter a sloping field via a kissing gate. Follow its left-hand edge to another kissing gate in the top corner where a path now eases along the hillside and emerges onto a narrow lane in the hamlet of French Street. Immediately before coming onto this lane, note the unusual private burial ground on the right, and a wonderful view left across a valley to the oasthouses of Outridge Farm (see Walk 5).

Nothing could be more typical of Kent than an oasthouse. These conical buildings – some circular, others square-edged – were used for drying hops. The lower, brick-built section contained a furnace, above which the freshly-harvested hops were spread across a thin floor to dry. Standing proud of the steeply sloping roof, the white sail-like open-sided chimney turned with the wind to draw the furnace fire. Once the hops had been dried, they would be tipped into huge sacks known as pockets. Their original use having died out, many oasthouses have either been converted to dwellings, or are used as storage barns.

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