A view of typical (?) country in Kent, showing one of the traditional Oast Houses for drying hops for beer. The Oast is often wrongly used to describe the round (or here, square) buildings where the actual drying takes place. The oast is actually the whole building used for drying and bagging and storing the hops. the round building is usually called a roundel, though how that fits with the square ones I don't know! The white bits on top are the cowls, used to keep the wind from blowing down the ventilation hole. when the wind changes direction, these acting like a weather vane, swing round accordingly, thus venting wet air from inside the roundel successfully to atmosphere.