Glade Farm, Bentley
Glade Farm used to be one of the scenes of a fly-on-the-wall docu-soap called 'The Village'. It followed the life and times of the villagers of Bentley, Hampshire, a typical English village from 1993 to 2001.
Initially broadcast as a radio programme on BBC Radio 4, Christmas 1990 and continued 1991, 1992 and 1993 - a total of 50 radio broadcasts. A book was also written by Nigel Farrell, covering the original Radio 4 episodes: The Village: The Early Years.
Due to success of the radio broadcast, the TV series started filming in summer 1993 and was broadcast on 3rd October 1993 by Meridian TV, later to be shown on BBC 2 and Sky. It was also exported to Australian and Norwegian TV.
The Production Company was Tiger Aspect Productions Producer: Paul Sommers Director/Narrator: Nigel Farrell (Also responsible for and appearing in A Place in France). The total number of episodes was 102 (Oct 1993 – Nov 2001).
One of the things that viewers learned about Glade Farm was that at the time of the TV programs it was a producer of hops. The 3 oast houses behind the farm also hint at this.
An Oast House is a building used to dry fresh hops before they are sent to the brewers, to be used for flavouring beer. Beer was not produced within the oast house itself, but some malthouses (breweries) did incorporate drying kilns for drying barley for malt.
The oast was a kiln, with a plenum chamber fired by charcoal at ground floor and the drying floor directly above. The steep pitched roof channelled the hot air through the hops to the top. A cowl on the top of the roof allowed the hot air ('reek') to be drawn up through the kiln in a vacuum effect. The cowl pivoted to control the air extraction and stop rain getting in. However Hampshire oast houses don't usually have a cowl. The ones here have shielded vents as Hampshire oast houses are usually square instead of round.
The stowage, was the barn section, it had a cooling floor and press at first floor and storage area at ground floor. The dried hops were taken from the drying floor to cool and be packed using a hop press. The press packed hops in a large sack called a 'pocket' suspended to the ground floor where the pockets were stored to await collection.
Nearby Alton used to be in the centre of a hop growing area. Girls would come down from London to pick the hops. Alton's square was where the hops were sold but this trade has long since died, with hops being imported from overseas. The last local hops grown was here at Bentley in 2004.
Bentley is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire. The parish has an acreage of 2,299 acres (9.30 km2). The village is located just off the A31 road between Farnham in Surrey and Alton, being about five miles (8 km) west of Farnham and six miles (10 km) east of Alton. It is served by Bentley railway station, which is about one mile (1.6 km) to the south and is actually in the parish of Binsted.
There are two pubs in the village: The Star (named after a car) and The Bull.
The original print this was canned from had a terrible magenta colour cast.
Glade Farm, Bentley
Glade Farm used to be one of the scenes of a fly-on-the-wall docu-soap called 'The Village'. It followed the life and times of the villagers of Bentley, Hampshire, a typical English village from 1993 to 2001.
Initially broadcast as a radio programme on BBC Radio 4, Christmas 1990 and continued 1991, 1992 and 1993 - a total of 50 radio broadcasts. A book was also written by Nigel Farrell, covering the original Radio 4 episodes: The Village: The Early Years.
Due to success of the radio broadcast, the TV series started filming in summer 1993 and was broadcast on 3rd October 1993 by Meridian TV, later to be shown on BBC 2 and Sky. It was also exported to Australian and Norwegian TV.
The Production Company was Tiger Aspect Productions Producer: Paul Sommers Director/Narrator: Nigel Farrell (Also responsible for and appearing in A Place in France). The total number of episodes was 102 (Oct 1993 – Nov 2001).
One of the things that viewers learned about Glade Farm was that at the time of the TV programs it was a producer of hops. The 3 oast houses behind the farm also hint at this.
An Oast House is a building used to dry fresh hops before they are sent to the brewers, to be used for flavouring beer. Beer was not produced within the oast house itself, but some malthouses (breweries) did incorporate drying kilns for drying barley for malt.
The oast was a kiln, with a plenum chamber fired by charcoal at ground floor and the drying floor directly above. The steep pitched roof channelled the hot air through the hops to the top. A cowl on the top of the roof allowed the hot air ('reek') to be drawn up through the kiln in a vacuum effect. The cowl pivoted to control the air extraction and stop rain getting in. However Hampshire oast houses don't usually have a cowl. The ones here have shielded vents as Hampshire oast houses are usually square instead of round.
The stowage, was the barn section, it had a cooling floor and press at first floor and storage area at ground floor. The dried hops were taken from the drying floor to cool and be packed using a hop press. The press packed hops in a large sack called a 'pocket' suspended to the ground floor where the pockets were stored to await collection.
Nearby Alton used to be in the centre of a hop growing area. Girls would come down from London to pick the hops. Alton's square was where the hops were sold but this trade has long since died, with hops being imported from overseas. The last local hops grown was here at Bentley in 2004.
Bentley is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire. The parish has an acreage of 2,299 acres (9.30 km2). The village is located just off the A31 road between Farnham in Surrey and Alton, being about five miles (8 km) west of Farnham and six miles (10 km) east of Alton. It is served by Bentley railway station, which is about one mile (1.6 km) to the south and is actually in the parish of Binsted.
There are two pubs in the village: The Star (named after a car) and The Bull.
The original print this was canned from had a terrible magenta colour cast.