The Hop Bin

For 400 years Kent and East Sussex were vividly and visibly associated with the cultivation of hops. Fran and Geoff Doel have evoked this bygone world of hopping by gathering together a wide range of social and literary accounts, poems and songs from the Tudor period to the present day, each with a contextual introduction. The selection illustrates both the 'rose-tinted' image and the harsher reality of a distinctive aspect of rural life in the south east.

For 400 years Kent and East Sussex were vividly and visibly associated with the cultivation of hops. Fran and Geoff Doel have evoked this bygone world of hopping by gathering together a wide range of social and literary accounts, poems and songs from the Tudor period to the present day, each with a contextual introduction. The selection illustrates both the 'rose-tinted' image and the harsher reality of a distinctive aspect of rural life in the south east.

"Out of the Hay and into the Hops explores the history and development of hop cultivation in the Weald of Kent together with the marketing of this important crop in the Borough at Southwark (where a significant proportion of Wealden hops were sold). A picture emerges of the relationship between the two activities, as well as of the impact this rural industry had upon the lives of the people engaged in it. Dr Cordle draws extensively on personal accounts of hop work to evoke a way of life now lost for good. Oral history, together with evidence from farm books and other sources, records how the steady routine of hop ploughing and dung spreading, weeding and spraying contrasted with the bustle and excitement of hop picking (bringing in, as it did, many itinerant workers from outside the community to help with the harvest) and the anxious period of drying the crop. For hops, prey to the vagaries of weather and disease, needed much care and attention to bring them to fruition. In early times their cultivation provided work for more people than any other crop. The diverse processes of hop cultivation are examined within the wider context of events such as the advent of rail and the effects of war, as are changes to the working practices and technologies used, and their reception and implementation in the Weald. Meanwhile, in the Borough, an enclave of hop factors and merchants, whose interests sometimes conflicted with those of the hop growers, arose and then suffered decline. A full account of this trade is presented, including day-to-day working practices, links with the Weald, and the changes in hop marketing following Britain's entry into the European Economic Community. This book provides readers with a fascinating analysis of some three hundred years of hop history in the Weald and the Borough. Hops still grow in the Weald; in the Borough, the Le May facade and the gates of the Hop Exchange are reminders of former trade."--Book description.

An enthralling romantic saga and a vibrant tale of illicit love, firm friendships and the indomitable character of the East Enders. It is 1959 and the Armstrong family - Jack, Laura and their daughter, Kay - are setting off on their annual hop-picking holiday. Far from the bustle of Stepney, the Kent hop fields offer hard work but fresh clean air and lively social gatherings around the campfires. But picking by hand is becoming a thing of the past as mechanisation takes over. While Jack leads the protest against the machines, Laura is otherwise preoccupied: will this mean the end of her seasonal love affair with the farm owner? And what of Kay who, on the brink of womanhood, craves adventure and creates turmoil when she and the handsome gypsy lad, Zacchi, meet in secret? As tensions grow between the cockneys and the local Romanies, it becomes clear that this summer will change lives for ever . . .