‘My family picked the hops, not Londoners’
Our article on hop-picking (Memories, May 26) sparked some memories for Lyn Heath (née Dumbrell) from Chapel Lane, Staplehurst.
She said: “This photograph was taken in around 1936/37.
“My mother, who is in the photo, recalled it being taken, although she didn’t realise at the time it was going to be turned into a postcard.
“It shows my maternal family. The little girl with a dark bob haircut is my mother, Cynthia Dumbrell, née Oliver, and the blonde girl behind is her sister, my aunt, Thelma Willis, née Oliver. She passed away only last year aged 92 and her husband Derek used to run Willis and Sons, the wet fishmongers in Oxford Street, Whitstable .
“The little boy being carried is my uncle James Oliver; the older lady sitting on my mother’s right wearing the dubious head-wear is my great, great aunt Kate Cole, née Stroud.
“My grandfather was also called James Oliver. Born in 1901, he was a carpenter and journeyman on farms.”
Mrs Heath said: “My uncle Jim is looking surly as he didn’t want to be carried by the farmer’s son so my grandmother stood behind to ensure good behaviour.
“The lady middle right with a headscarf and glasses is my grandmother Hilda Oliver, née Roberts.
“My mother’s younger sister, Bet Hogbin (née Oliver) is missing from the picture as she was away chasing butterflies and wouldn’t come when called.
“I know that everyone else in the picture was from Kent and that, at that time, my mother’s family lived at Worlds End Cottage between Norton and Lewson Street in Sittingbourne.
“My mother recalled that she was eight or nine when the picture was taken.”
Mrs Heath said: “It is true to say that many hop-farmers did not want to use DFLs (Down From London) for the reasons stated in your article.
“Indeed my mother would use her annual holiday to go hop-picking into her late 20s farmers would pay for coaches to pick up from outlying villages or towns - which is how she met my father.
“He had just been de-mobbed after serving in Malaya and had found a job driving coaches for a Mr Bottle.
“Hop-picking was a way of making a bit more money for special occasions (by 1957 it was for their wedding and house).
“My grandmother and great great aunt continued hopping until the latter had passed away and until that machines had taken over in my grandmother’s case.
“My grandfather used to string the hop poles. He had to walk on tall stilts to reach the top of the poles and when the hops were picked he worked in the oast house drying them, which meant staying in the oast all night to make sure the hops dried evenly and that the stove didn’t go out.
“So while the women and children picked, the men were on the farm doing something somewhere else.
“Local farmers used a lot of child and female labour during harvests, and not just for hops.
“My mum and her family would pick cherries, apples, pears and sometimes cabbages and sprouts although she disliked the latter two, too cold.”
“Today people would be horrified to hear about child labour, but I know that my mum and her siblings loved it, even though they’d get sore hands from the spiky hops.
“We became aware decades later that the photograph had been turned into a postcard, after a cousin of my grandmother visited
Kent and found it by chance, recognising the various members of her family.
“By the time I was born, hoppickers had been replaced by machines, indeed many hop gardens were grubbed up as lager became more popular and hops could be imported from the continent more cheaply (though the old boys would say they were not so good.)
“Though today things are turning full circle - with the advent of micro-breweries, you see more hop gardens and so perhaps the Kentish hop is back.
“I never picked hops until I was in my late 50s - the hedgerow which is the boundary of our house has hops growing in it. So some years I pick them for decoration or for hop pillows but really not the same thing.”
Mrs Heath said: “Thank you for recognising the fact that a great many local people were involved in hop picking, it was only the really big hop farms that used people from London.”