Hop-picking in Shoreham
by Mary Symons
by Mary Symons
The cultivation of hops to flavour beer has long been associated with Kent and was begun as early as the 14th century. Hop gardens probably developed here because open farming was not widespread, there was a lot of wood and charcoal available, and the rich alluvial soil was very suitable. The gardens attracted London workers from early times but the process really took off in the 18th century and, by 1875, 43,000 acres were under cultivation.
East Enders would arrive in August and September bringing their children with them on a working holiday. Hop-picking was popular because of the fresh air and the convivial atmosphere. Evenings were often spent round the camp fire with song and merriment. However, it was not a job for the faint-hearted and conditions were often tough. Huts were not provided until the 1880s and there was only straw to sleep on.
Hoppers often woke cold and wet; soaked clothes could not be dried and epidemics were inevitable. Water was unsafe to drink and there were outbreaks of cholera. Workers’ rights were non-existent, the farmers could sack them at any time and laws about child labour were disregarded. Mechanisation eventually replaced the need for manual labour and in 1960 the last of the hoppers’ special trains stopped service.
As part of the 2015 Shoreham Fete, the History Society’s stall had on show a number of implements which were used in the hop-making process. The largest was the hop plough which was horse drawn. Other items were the pole-puller’s pole, hop hooks and hop dogs, which were large flat hooks with extensive teeth. These exhibits gave a very vivid sense of the labour involved in one very significant aspect of our labouring past.
In the Historical Society Publication No 34, “A Shoreham Childhood”, Rose Wootton recalled her time as a young hopper in the 1920s:
In the Historical Society Publication No 34, “A Shoreham Childhood”, Rose Wootton recalled her time as a young hopper in the 1920s:
Shoreham was naturally a good hop-growing area, and hop-picking was the most popular way for housewives to make some extra money. The hops grew on long trailing stems called “bines” which were trained up high vertical wire supports, and at harvest time the farm men, often on tall stilts, would cut the bines down from their supports; then the women and children would pick off the bunches of aromatic flowers needed in the breweries to flavour beer.
School holidays were timed to coincide with harvesting of crops such as the hops or strawberries, when mothers would be out in the fields instead of in their homes. Over half of the mums in the village took their offspring with them, sometimes playing but often helping with the picking and therefore the earning too.
The village was close to two hop farms, Castle Farm and Sepham Farm. At Castle Farm the hops were put into huge baskets with darker bands woven into them to mark the level of each bushel of hops, but at Sepham the hops went into bins made of sacking, suspended from boards along each side on which the pickers could sit. There was a friendly rivalry between the pickers on each farm as to which way was best. My family all went to Castle Farm so naturally to us that was the best. Pickers at Castle Farm used to take umbrellas, not because of the rain but because it was easier to find an old chair and sit and pick the hop flowers into these upturned umbrellas, then empty the contents into the baskets. Otherwise, children and shorter people (including my mother, who was only four foot ten) would have to stand all day to pick the flowers into the baskets.
In the Summer 2003 edition of “Revista”, Susan Platts remembered the Shoreham hop fields of the 1940s:
As a child during and after the war, I would visit my mother’s first cousin. Kathleen Greenwood, who lived at Coombe Hollow. The Shoreham valley was a continuous line of hop fields.
In September, the regularly employed hop-pickers came mostly from Dartford and the East End of London. They arrived in buses, motorbikes and sidecars, cycles or by train. They trailed down from the station in family groups to the hop farms and moved into the shacks provided by the farmers. They often brought their own bits of furniture for comfort as they sat around picking the hops into the communal bins.
The farm labourers unhooked the big branches of the grape-like bunches from the top of the wires with their long poles, and distributed them to each group. As the bins filled, they were measured and accounted before being carted off to the oast houses for drying.
The pickers were of all ages from the very old grandparents to the very young, some of whom were lying in boxes at the feet of the adults as they continued the plucking. I remember their sense of enjoyment and cheerfulness and their chatter and laughter.
People worked quickly and hard as time was money. The children, given special holiday leave by their schools, in collusion with the farmers, were either helping spasmodically or off playing around the fields. The pickers stayed two or three weeks in September until the lush green foliage of the hops gradually diminished and the bare bones of the stakes and the hop poles remained. They would gather up their possessions and make the homeward trek the way they had come – all in cheerful mood.