Hops And Hopping In Faversham

In the hop picking heyday of the 1920s and 1930s, Faversham was at the heart of the Kent hop growing area and for a few weeks from late August through most of September each year local labour was supplemented by almost 100,000 Londoners, who travelled by rail on the "Hoppers' Specials".  These left usually at around midnight when whole East End families boarded every carriage the Southern Railway could muster, often hauled from overgrown sidings where they had lain idle since the return journeys of the previous year.  The pickers brought their bedding and cooking gear with them and at Faversham and Selling railway stations, these were loaded on to high-sided farm wagons or piled onto home-made barrows or prams for the walk to the hop farms.

Once at the farms the Londoners lived in primitive makeshift corrugated-iron huts with campfires in front for their cooking requirements.  The best of the pickers would have the same huts reserved for them by the farmer year after year.  Many local pickers were not so fortunate.  Not only did they miss the suppers and singing around the evening communal camp fire but they had the trek home after a hard day in the fields and an even earlier start the next morning.

School terms were geared to the hop-picking season once education became compulsory, so that children could pick with their parents.

At weekends male members of hop-picking families who had remained in London would come for their day of "'opping darn in Kent".  Many frequented local inns after picking, and lurid tales abound of the swearing and fighting with the permanent inhabitants before bedtime!  For many of the East End families this was the only holiday they had and the only experience the children had of the countryside.  During both world wars, when labour was short, many local firms helped in the hop gardens.

Hop Growing And Drying

Hops are known to have been cultivated since medieval times and the first hopped ale was being imported to the UK by the end of the 14th century.  Hops were used both to ensure that beer kept longer and to improve its flavour and fragrance.

In earlier times, hops were grown in 'hills' up 10ft poles, but from the 1880s methods varied.  In the Weald of Kent the 'hills' containing 4 plants were trained in an umbrella style, fanning out to the top from the waist-high wire.  In the Faversham area the plants were in rows, growing to waist height and then angled over to the top wire to form long 'alleys' the length of the hop garden.  The hops were trained up strings by women, the new strings being attached to the top wires by the skilled stilt walkers.

At the start of the day the bines would be pulled down by the individual pickers, and any sections remaining aloft were cut down by the 'pole-puller' with his sharp hook on the end of a 10ft pole.  Often the bines would be heavy with rain or dew, and a shower bath could not be avoided!  In the Faversham area the hops would be picked into baskets, then finally measured out in bushels for the 'tally basket' (6 bushels) at the end of the row.  In the Weald, families would pick communally into Hessian bins.  The 'tally man' came round at intervals during the day, when the hops would be measured out by the tally and recorded for each family.  They were then transferred to the oast house in huge 'pokes' known as 'green bags', each containing 12 bushels, by horse-drawn farm wagons.

Pickers were paid by the bushel and an average pick would be 25 bushels a day.  One shilling (5p) per bushel is the highest pay recorded and for many years it was only eight old pence.

Children were expected to pick a bushel or two before being allowed to play - the local orchards were very vulnerable at this time!  Shopkeepers provided a service with vans which toured the hop gardens supplying most basic needs, including lollies for the children, who thrived away from the London smoke and enjoyed their holiday even if they had to do some work.  Chestnut faggots were delivered to the huts for the cooking fires and to the gardens for the inevitable 'brew-up'.

Having arrived at the oast the hops went through a continuous drying process, which required the farm workers to live in the oast (most of the local oasts have now been converted into dwellings).  After drying, the hops were pressed into 'pockets' (large sacks seven and a half feet long), which were filled by lowering through the floor.  These were then sewn up and weighed, usually finishing at 168lbs - 1.5cwts; and then, after the farm details had been stencilled on, they were sent up to a London market.  There, a sample of pressed hops - a 4 inch cube - would be cut and the market price based on this.  Oyster Bay House, also known as the Big Building, started life in around 1845 as a store for hops awaiting transport by sailing barge to London.

Local brewer Shepherd Neame continues to use Kent - grown hops in its beer.  Most of the harvesting is now carried out mechanically but the carnival atmosphere of the hop harvest carries on at the annual Faversham Hop Festival.

The Fleur Gallery Hopping Exhibition will be open 10am to 4pm on each of the Festival days.  Also, the new display area in the Museum, due to open early Summer, will have some information on hopping and brewing.